Chalkbeat

‘More kids, more joy:’ What happened when two small Denver elementary schools merged

2024-02-27T23:02:57+00:00

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In art class on a recent Friday, Cheltenham Elementary students made puppets out of paper bags. In instrumental music, they plinked out patterns — “ta, ti-ti, ta-ta” — on wooden xylophones. In dance class, they took turns doing a step-touch to a version of the disco hit “Stayin’ Alive.”

The west Denver school has a whopping six elective classes, often called “specials,” this school year, up from two last year. Cheltenham also has 10 mental health and behavioral specialists, two assistant principals, two reading interventionists, two math interventionists, and a full-time gifted and talented teacher.

For a school with 425 students, it’s an abundance of staff.

Principal Felicia Manzanares has another word for it.

“It’s a dream,” she said. “But you only get that for one year.”

The one-year-only staffing bump is because Cheltenham was on the receiving end of a controversial school consolidation. In the face of declining enrollment, the Denver school board voted last spring to close tiny Fairview Elementary and reassign its students to Cheltenham.

A one-time agreement between DPS and the Denver teachers union is partly responsible for the huge staffing boost at Cheltenham — and once the agreement expires after this school year, Manzanares will have to make cuts.

More Denver school consolidations could be coming. Although an influx of migrant students from Venezuela and other countries has boosted Denver Public Schools’ enrollment this year, it’s not clear if those students will stay in DPS. If they leave, Colorado’s largest school district could once again be facing the prospect of declining enrollment and school closures.

The consolidation of Fairview and Cheltenham provides a window into what the future could hold. In some ways, because of the one-year staffing agreement, it’s a rose-colored window.

But Mazanares said this dream year has eased the consolidation. It has also shown her, as a longtime principal in schools where most students have high needs, what’s possible. At Cheltenham this year, 93% of students are students of color, 82% are from low-income families, 20% receive special education, and 18% are English language learners.

“This is the best case scenario for how you run a school that’s highly impacted: You flood it with resources,” Manzanares said. “Have I caught all kids up? No. But I have been able to make seismic change in their identity and in [students seeing] themselves as a scholar.”

Longtime Cheltenham music teacher Holly Charles has a simpler way of quantifying the changes brought on by the consolidation.

“More kids, more joy,” she said.

First grader Farhan Noor, 7, works on an illustration during library class at Cheltenham Elementary.

Declining enrollment led to shrinking resources

Before this year, Denver Public Schools was fast losing elementary students.

Years of decreasing birth rates resulted in smaller families, and rising housing prices pushed many of those families out of the city. Enrollment at a slew of Denver elementary schools, including Cheltenham, was dwindling. Several schools, including Fairview, had reached what Superintendent Alex Marrero called “critically low enrollment.”

Denver schools are funded per student, and low enrollment means less money for staff and programming. Before the consolidation, resources at both Fairview and Cheltenham were shrinking. With just 125 students last year, Fairview had only one class per grade level, depriving teachers of collaboration with teammates who teach the same grade.

Manzanares, who was the executive principal over both schools last year, said Fairview lacked support for students on both ends of the academic spectrum. About 85% of its students were reading below grade level. Although some students had incredible strengths, none were identified as gifted and talented. And many had mental health needs that were going unaddressed.

“I was struck by how underserved it seemed,” Manzanares said of Fairview when she became executive principal. “There was a lot of very visible trauma. Kids who were not regulated. It was very common to have a child in the hallway crying, dysregulated, screaming.”

With just under 300 students, Cheltenham was struggling, too. The school was down to two specials: music and P.E. With no art teacher, Manzanares was stepping in to teach art once per week. Cheltenham’s bilingual program for Spanish-speaking students who are learning English had shrunk so much that it was hard to provide quality instruction.

Both Cheltenham and Fairview had been at risk of closure by DPS for years. As district leaders played a will-they, won’t-they game with politically unpopular school closures, Manzanares said she and other principals of small schools decided to get ahead of the decisions. They began talking with their teachers about the possibility of consolidation.

But turnover on the Fairview staff made the conversation harder. So did the displacement of families in the Sun Valley neighborhood where the school is located and where the Denver Housing Authority has been tearing down older subsidized housing units to build new ones. Both factors meant the Fairview community was more caught off guard when the district recommended closure.

At district meetings, some parents and community members pushed back.

“It’s so unfair,” parent Najah Abu Serryeh said after the March meeting when the school board voted to close Fairview. “Fairview is not just a school for us. It’s like a community.”

That Manzanares stood up and supported the closure did not go over well.

“I was very visible at board meetings advocating for it,” she said. “That also created this distrust, like who is this person wanting to close our community school? To some people that felt villainous.”

But she said she remembered thinking, “I need you to trust you’re not seeing what I’m seeing.”

First graders take part in dance class at Cheltenham Elementary.

Parents’ fears have dissipated

When the consolidation happened, Cheltenham got doubly lucky in terms of resources. In addition to more students and more per-student dollars, the school benefitted from the one-time agreement between DPS and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association that guaranteed jobs at the welcoming schools for staff from the closing schools for this year only.

Not only did the union agreement provide job security for Fairview teachers, it resulted in a wealth of programming for students and families. Students have two types of music classes this year — instrumental and choral — as well as art, dance, P.E., and a library class.

There are multiple classrooms at every grade and a certified bilingual teacher for each. The gifted and talented teacher has already identified two former Fairview students for the program.

And because of a robust mental health team of four school psychologists, one therapist, two behavioral specialists, a restorative justice coordinator, a social emotional learning coordinator, and a dean of culture, Manzanares said, “students are regulated. Students are growing.

“By and large, I’m serving happier kids.”

The staffing boost has also made the transition easier for families who were wary about the merger. That includes Cheltenham parents who were worried that adding more students would make the school crowded and take support away from their own children.

But parents said the opposite has happened.

“They got more activities and programs for them, and I think she’s met some new friends,” parent Josephine Bernal said of her daughter Alyona, who’s in second grade. “She’s just been blossoming. I love the new staff. They merged like they’d been family the whole time.”

Most of the Fairview staff and 105 of the 125 students came to Cheltenham, Manzanares said. First grade teacher Amanda Mendez was one of the teachers who made the move.

“The families that came to Cheltenham, a lot would ask, ‘Are you going to go? Are you going to be there?’” Mendez said. “They were comforted by the idea that there would be familiar faces.”

Mendez was hard-pressed to name anything about the consolidation that has been challenging, aside from moving her belongings. Instead, she ticked off a long list of upsides.

One of the biggest, she said, is that with multiple first-grade classes, the teachers can mix-and-match students by academic level. During writing time, one first-grade teacher works with students who are above grade level while another works with students who are behind.

Family liaison Yuri Frias also came over from Fairview. There, she said parents barely ever came into the school to get groceries from the food pantry or help paying their heating bills, even though many needed it. Now at Cheltenham, Frias said she’s serving more Fairview families than ever, even if they have to travel an extra mile and a half to get there.

“I think the reason is the consolidation,” Frias said. “It gave them an empowerment to ask for help.” At first, she said, families felt like the consolidation was taking something away from them. But Frias said that quickly turned into “then what do you have to offer us?”

Not everything has gone smoothly. There have been logistical issues with the school buses that bring students from the Sun Valley neighborhood to Cheltenham. And some of the older students who spent most of their elementary years at Fairview want their school back.

When Laila Ali, boxer Muhammed Ali’s daughter, visited Cheltenham recently to speak to students about the power of their voice, Manzanares said some fourth graders said they wanted to protest the closure of Fairview and advocate for reopening the school.

Students' artwork hangs in the hallway at Cheltenham Elementary.

School events bring the communities together

On a recent Thursday night, Cheltenham held one of its three yearly “exhibition nights.” For an hour and a half after school, families wandered through the classrooms where students had displayed their work. Each grade’s projects had a theme: kindergarten was weather, third grade was famous scientists, fifth grade was space exploration.

In the auditorium, second graders who’d been studying volcanoes acted out the storybook “When the Giant Stirred.” Parents recorded on their cell phones and soothed fussing babies as the second graders held up laminated drawings of butterflies, turtles, and fish.

At the point in the story when the volcano erupts, the students dashed over to a folding table set with painted clay volcanoes and bottles of baking soda and vinegar.

“Three, two, one, pour!” they said in unison.

Second grade teacher Gracen Porreca said events like the exhibition night have brought the two school communities together. Whatever us-versus-them mentality may have existed at the beginning of the year has largely faded, he said. Looking out at the parents in the auditorium, he said you wouldn’t know which were from Fairview and which were from Cheltenham.

“It wasn’t like one side was sitting on one side and the other side was sitting on the other,” Porreca said. “They were all in there together and they were all engaged with what was happening on stage with their kiddos.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco parents are trying to keep a school in their community. They need half a million dollars.

2024-02-26T23:40:59+00:00

Writing grant requests, requesting donations from local businesses, and even starting a GoFundMe page.

That’s how some Jeffco parents are scrambling to raise more than half a million dollars to help open a charter school in a remote mountain canyon after Jeffco Public Schools announced it would close the K-8 school in Coal Creek Canyon.

The Jeffco school board voted this fall to close Coal Creek Canyon K-8 citing low enrollment and an unsustainable cost. But Jefferson Academy, the charter network that was supposed to take over the building, is now facing the same issues and may not be able to open a school there after all.

Unlike when the district closed about 20 other schools in the past couple of years and reassigned students to nearby schools, district leaders acknowledged that closing Coal Creek Canyon K-8, located near the border with the Boulder district, would be different because of the school’s remote location. So the district opened a process offering the building to a charter that might be better prepared to run such a small school.

Jefferson Academy, an existing charter school network in Jeffco, was approved to open a prekindergarten through eighth grade school in the Coal Creek Canyon building.

But now that the school may not open after all, parents are unsure of the options their children will have this fall.

Parent Ashley Allen said that the next closest district school, Three Creeks K-8, is about a 19-minute drive away in good weather.

Allen’s son has diabetes and she often has been called to come to school because her son’s blood sugar drops or his insulin pump is failing.

In those worst-case scenarios, the drive “can make for a very nervous parent,” she said.

Tim Matlick, executive director of Jefferson Academy, said the charter school had been counting on having at least 87 students, and an additional 20 for its homeschool program. When submitting the charter application, Jefferson Academy had received 95 interest forms for potential students.

So far, the school has just 60 enrollments, and seven homeschool students signed up.

Parents from the canyon went to the charter school’s board meeting last week and asked for more time to raise the money themselves.

The charter school board gave them just until its next meeting, March 12, to help raise the $550,000. Without the funds, the charter board will decide whether to scrap the plans to open.

The charter leaders are also trying to raise money. Matlick said they now have preliminary approval for a startup grant from the state department of education for about $107,000. They’re also looking at a possible grant of about $75,000 from the Denver-based Daniels Fund.

When the charter was approved by the Jeffco school board, one condition was that the Jefferson Academy network set aside $250,000 to help support the new charter in the canyon.

Matlick said there is discussion about whether that money should be used to close the $550,000 funding gap or if it should be held in reserves for other potential problems once the charter opens.

Matlick said the district has been generous. The agreement to lease the building would only cost the charter $196,000 per year, to cover district-provided maintenance including custodial staff, snow removal, and trash pickups.

All the furniture and technology in the building would be donated to the charter.

But, he said, the community’s help is going to be critical.

“We’ve got a big group working to make this happen,” said Allen, whose son is a second grader at Coal Creek Canyon K-8. She started the GoFundMe page, and set it up so that money will be refunded to donors if the school doesn’t open.

As of Monday afternoon, the GoFundMe page had just over $5,000. “Our 4 children all went to this school. It is a vital part of the Coal Creek community. Please keep this school available to the community for their children,” one donor wrote.

If grants and donations can help in the first year or two, Allen said, parents and charter leaders believe that young children in the canyon community will help enrollment grow in future years to make the school sustainable.

Allen said parents are working on proposals to ask the local Coal Creek Canyon businesses including a coffee shop, the local garage, and some restaurants to pitch in. They also plan to ask bigger businesses like Denver Water, which has trucks passing through the canyon regularly.

Still, she is worried. Three Creeks is such a large school that it would be a big change for her son. If there is no school in the canyon, Allen said, she and her husband are considering moving.

“I will say the stress feels like it’s been nonstop for two years,” Allen said.

In a letter Jefferson Academy sent to families, charter leaders said that if they do not open the school, Jeffco district leaders will meet with families the day after the charter’s board meeting to speak “about their plans for next year and what one-year programming options could be possible.”

Before getting a charter school approved to open, the district had contingency plans to keep the elementary portion of the school open for one additional year. Middle school students would have either gone to Three Creeks, or chosen remote learning facilitated within the Coal Creek building.

Jeffco district leaders declined to speak about alternative plans. Lisa Relou, chief of staff for the district, said “we are doing everything we can to support” the charter in opening.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Fewer students are enrolled in Colorado schools again this year

2024-01-17T17:00:00+00:00

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The number of students in Colorado schools continues to drop and is now lower than it was after the large decrease in enrollment at the start of the pandemic.

In October 2023, 881,464 students were enrolled in public schools, down 1,800, or 0.2%, from October 2022, according to official enrollment counts released by the Colorado Department of Education Wednesday.

Before the pandemic, enrollment numbers in Colorado had been increasing every year since the 1980s. But in fall of 2020, after months of mostly remote learning, enrollment sank by about 30,000 students from the previous year. In fall of 2021, enrollment went up slightly, but has been falling again since.

State Demographer Elizabeth Garner told the State Board of Education last week that the decline in enrollment is due partly to decreasing birth rates, but also to a slowdown in migration and mobility.

“We are forecasting that total school-age population to decline basically through 2028-2029, then start to increase, but not get back to levels that we saw in 2019 until about 2035,” Garner said.

She said the trend is statewide.

“Forty-three of the 64 counties had an absolute decline in the under-18 population over the last decade,” Garner said. “It doesn’t matter where you were — Eastern Plains, San Luis Valley, West Slope, Denver metro.”

In a statement, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova noted concern about the drop in enrollment among the youngest students.

“We know that pre-kindergarten and kindergarten are where students build critical foundations for life-long academic success including language development, early literacy, and social skills,” she said.

Still, she said, “we are encouraged by the state’s commitment to early learning through the Colorado Universal Preschool Program.”

The universal preschool program provides free preschool to all Colorado 4-year-olds and some 3-year-olds. This year, about 50,000 students are enrolled in various types of public and private preschools across the state. Public school districts’ pre-K programs have 32,060 students, slightly fewer than a year earlier.

First grade and kindergarten saw some of the largest decreases in enrollment this year. First grade enrollment declined by 3.91%, or 2,478 students, compared with the first grader group of 2022. Kindergarten had 1,068 fewer students, a 1.79% drop. Eighth grade and ninth grade also had large enrollment declines.

Only five grade levels saw an increase in students compared with last year. The largest increase was among second graders, up by 5%, or more than 3,000 students.

Other segments that grew included those who are home-schooled, and those who are enrolled in online programs.

Enrollment in charter schools decreased by 1.8% to 135,223.

The number of students identified as experiencing homelessness statewide went up by 1,570 compared with last year.

Last school year only one district in Colorado, Adams 12, had more than 1,000 students identified as needing services related to homelessness. This year, there were four such districts — Aurora, Adams 12, Jeffco, and Poudre.

By percentage, the tiny district of Sheridan continues to have the highest proportion of its students experiencing homelessness in the metro area, but the number has dropped over the years. This school year, 149 Sheridan students, or 14.1%, are experiencing homelessness, down from 205, or 18.2%, last year.

Broken down by race, white students had the largest decreases in enrollment, while Hispanic or Latino students had the largest increases. Schools counted 312,687 Hispanic or Latino students in October 2023, up from 308,739 the year before.

By percentage, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students had the largest enrollment jump: 9.18% more than last year. These students make up a tiny proportion of all Colorado students.

Among the state’s largest districts, just a handful recorded more students than last year. They include Aurora Public Schools, which had a slight increase, and Denver Public Schools, which gained 371 students. Denver has attributed the increase to an influx of migrant students, many from Venezuela.

Among the metro-area districts, School District 27J in Brighton had the largest growth in enrollment. It gained more students than Denver, Aurora, or any of the large districts. Meanwhile, Sheridan, Westminster, and Adams 14 had the largest decreases in the metro area.

The state’s data reflect official student counts in October, and those are the counts typically used to determine funding levels.

But the state’s release acknowledged that several districts have seen a large number of students who are new to the country arriving throughout the school year.

“CDE is committed to working with districts and school teams to ensure they are supported in serving these multilingual learners,” the department’s statement notes.

Look up enrollment changes at your district in the table below:

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school to replace tiny Jeffco K-8 slated for closure in remote Coal Creek Canyon

2024-01-11T00:59:07+00:00

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The Jeffco school board on Wednesday approved a new charter school to open in Coal Creek Canyon and replace a district-run school that will close at the end of this school year.

Jefferson Academy, a charter network that has long operated in the district, is proposing to replicate its model with a pre-K-8 school in the same building as the soon-to-be-closed Coal Creek Canyon K-8. The new school, Jefferson Academy Coal Creek Canyon, will open for the 2024-25 school year, and will be designed as significantly smaller than its existing schools.

The board voted unanimously and with little discussion to approve Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s recommendation. The decision means that families in Coal Creek Canyon, a small community near the Boulder school district boundary, will continue to have a nearby public school for their young children.

In October, the Jeffco school board voted to close Coal Creek Canyon K-8 as part of the second phase of the district’s plan to close small schools. With fewer than 100 students the district said the school was not sustainable. But given that the school is in a remote part of the district, officials proposed opening a charter in the building so families wouldn’t have to travel far to a new school.

The district also noted that it may be more feasible for a charter school to operate in that location with relatively few students.

Initially, the district received three letters of intent from charter schools interested in the Coal Creek Canyon K-8 facilities, but it ultimately received only one application from Jefferson Academy.

Staff presenting Dorland’s recommendation to the board Wednesday said the district had been impressed that the charter network had submitted 95 intent-to-enroll forms for its proposed school. That would mark an enrollment increase from the district-run school’s current student count.

The superintendent did include two conditions for the charter to open.

First, the district is asking the charter network to set aside $250,000 for use at the Coal Creek Canyon site, in case enrollment projections or the proposed finance plan don’t pan out.

The district is also asking Jefferson Academy to present a detailed plan by April 5 on how it would provide targeted support to students who are struggling academically.

In addition to the district’s typical review teams for the charter application, the district also had a committee of community members from Coal Creek Canyon review the application and present their thoughts.

In a memo, the committee cited several strengths of the proposed school, such as the options that will be available for before- and after-school care, unique course offerings, and the opportunity to have one local Coal Creek parent serve as a member of the charter network’s school board.

Among its concerns, the group cited a lack of transportation; it asked the school to at least help coordinate carpooling. The committee also asked for increased marketing to help families better understand the school’s proposed Core Knowledge curriculum model.

At the opportunity for public comment in December, only one parent spoke to the school board about the charter application, saying she was impressed with the proposed school plan, which had made her “enthusiastic” about her son’s learning again.

Dorland told the school board she would keep them updated on enrollment projections for the charter school and how it progresses.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Tres escuelas de Denver cerrarán al final del año escolar

2023-03-20T20:54:10+00:00

Debido a la reducción en las inscripciones, las Escuelas Públicas de Denver cerrarán al final de este año escolar dos escuelas primarias, la Fairview Elementary y la Math and Science Leadership Academy, y una escuela intermedia, la Denver Discovery School.

La junta escolar tomó la decisión en una reunión celebrada el 9 de marzo. Algunos miembros de la junta se sintieron tristes durante la votación. El Vicepresidente de la Junta, Auon’tai Anderson, dijo que estaba votando “con el corazón encogido”. El miembro de la Junta Scott Esserman calificó el cierre de la Denver Discovery School ”un fracaso institucional”.

Varios miembros de la junta lloraron después de la primera de las tres votaciones. El fiscal del distrito repartió pañuelos desechables para secarse los ojos. La Presidenta Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán pidió un receso.

Carrie Olson, miembro de la Junta, dijo que le costó preparar los comentarios para la reunión del jueves “porque es muy difícil hablar del cierre de una escuela.”

“Son decisiones realmente difíciles y ninguno de nosotros las toma a la ligera”, dijo Olson.

La votación se celebró un día después de que la recomendación formal del Superintendente Alex Marrero se hiciera pública en una presentación de diapositivas publicada en línea. La junta se estaba reuniendo para tener un retiro de todo el día. Aunque los retiros están abiertos al público, normalmente la junta no vota en estas reuniones.

Marrero dijo que el personal de la escuela le urgió que le presentara la recomendación a la junta antes de la reunión de votación regular programada para el 23 de marzo.

A los estudiantes de Fairview se les garantiza inscripción y transporte a la Cheltenham Elementary, a menos de 1.5 millas de distancia. Al personal de Fairview se le garantiza un empleo en Cheltenham. Las dos escuelas ya comparten un director ejecutivo que supervisa ambas, dijo Marrero.

La Autoridad de la Vivienda de Denver resistió el cierre de Fairview, argumentando que las viviendas económicas que pronto estarán disponibles en la comunidad de Sun Valley podrían representar cientos de estudiantes más. Pero Liz Méndez, directora ejecutiva de inscripción y planificación de campus de DPS, dijo que las proyecciones del distrito son más bajas.

Todos los votos de la junta fueron unánimes, excepto el voto para cerrar a Fairview. Anderson votó en contra. Marrero dijo que el distrito podría reabrir y “reimaginar” a Fairview si aumenta la cantidad de niños en edad de primaria en esa comunidad.

En el momento de la votación solamente había entre el público un padre de los estudiantes de las escuelas que se van a cerrar. Najah Sabu Serryeh, cuya hija menor cursa el primer grado en Fairview, se enjugaba las lágrimas.

“Es tan injusto”, dijo ella después. “Fairview no es solamente una escuela para nosotros. Es como una comunidad”

Dominic Díaz, padre de Fairview, vio la reunión virtualmente.

“Voy a recoger a mi hija dentro de una hora y 20 minutos, y estoy pensando cómo voy a compartir esta noticia con ella, o incluso si quiero hacerlo”, dijo Díaz, cuya hija está en preescolar.

La presidente del Consejo Municipal de la Ciudad de Denver, Jamie Torres, también criticó la decisión en una carta que le envió a la junta y compartió en Twitter. Ella dijo que el distrito había tomado esta decisión cuando la escuela estaba en “su estado más grave de transición” y que no se había tenido en cuenta a las familias que se mudarán dentro de poco tiempo a esa comunidad.

Los estudiantes de la Math and Science Leadership Academy (MSLA) serán inscritos automáticamente en la Escuela Primaria Valverde, justo al lado, pero Marrero prometió que el distrito se comunicará con cada familia para preguntarle si eso es lo que quieren. Las familias podrían elegir otras escuelas.

Al personal de la MSLA se les garantizará un trabajo en Valverde. Marrero dijo que Valverde está feliz de incorporar parte del currículo de matemáticas y ciencias de la MSLA el próximo año.

Los estudiantes de la Denver Discovery School (DDS), una de las varias escuelas de un área grande que el distrito llama un área de inscripción, no serán inscritos automáticamente en otra escuela intermedia. En vez de eso, el distrito ayudará a las familias de DDS a conseguirles lugar a sus hijos en otra escuela secundaria de su preferencia. El distrito también ayudará al personal del DDS a encontrar otro trabajo.

Las tres escuelas tienen lo que Marrero llama “inscripción críticamente baja”. Las proyecciones del distrito muestran que la DDS tendría solamente 62 estudiantes el próximo año, la MSLA tendría 104 y la Fairview tendría 118.

“El sistema no puede seguir funcionando así”, le dijo Marrero a la junta escolar. “Es una difícil realidad. Tiene que pasar algo”.

El distrito financia sus escuelas asignando una cantidad de dinero por estudiante. Las escuelas con pocos estudiantes tienen dificultades para contratar suficiente personal, lo que a menudo lleva a combinar los salones y reducir las clases electivas como arte y música.

La inscripción en las Escuelas Públicas de Denver está disminuyendo, y las reducciones más drásticas ocurren en los grados de primaria. Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS) informan que tienen 6,485 menos estudiantes de primaria que en 2014 y proyectan que perderán otros 3,000 estudiantes de kindergarten a 12º grado en los próximos cinco años.

La junta escolar rechazó una recomendación previa de Marrero en noviembre para cerrar la DDS y la SLA. Originalmente él había recomendado cerrar 10 escuelas, incluida la Fairview, pero revisó su recomendación a solamente las dos escuelas después de una fuerte resistencia por parte de la comunidad y la junta escolar.

Los miembros de la junta elogiaron el jueves la forma en que el distrito trató al personal, a las familias y a los miembros de la comunidad en las escuelas Fairview, MSLA y DDS. Dijeron que fue un trato muy diferente al que DPS tuvo con las 10 escuelas cerradas este otoño, que en su opinión fue deficiente.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Cierre de escuelas: Cómo Denver, Jeffco y Aurora están abordando la decisión

2022-11-10T13:54:01+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación.

Tres de los distritos escolares más grandes de Colorado — Denver, Jeffco y Aurora — están enfrentando el mismo problema: reducción en el número de estudiantes. Pero cada uno está manejando las decisiones de cuáles escuelas cerrar de manera diferente.

El distrito de Aurora ya ha cerrado ocho escuelas en los últimos dos años, y algunas todavía están en proceso de cierre. Los miembros de la junta escolar han luchado con las decisiones, votando inicialmente en contra de dos recomendaciones de cierre este año antes de cambiar su voto.

Ahora el distrito está iniciando un proceso para averiguar qué hacer con los edificios vacíos, incluso cuando es posible que haya más cierres.

En Jeffco, después de cerrar dos escuelas abruptamente en los últimos dos años, una nueva administración recomendó cerrar 16 escuelas primarias todas a la vez al final de este año escolar. La junta escolar de Jeffco tiene prevista una votación sobre esta recomendación el jueves. Es probable que el distrito también recomiende el cierre de escuelas intermedias o secundarias el próximo año.

Denver ha iniciado, pausado y reiniciado un proceso de cierre de escuelas en los últimos dos años. Finalmente, el superintendente recomendó cerrar 10 escuelas primarias y secundarias al final de este año escolar. La junta escolar de Denver tiene previsto votar el 17 de noviembre.

Los padres tienen muchas preguntas sobre estas decisiones: ¿Cómo se selecciona cuál escuela cerrar? ¿Por qué algunos distritos están cerrando tantas escuelas a la vez? ¿Por qué los distritos escolares no tienen en cuenta los aspectos académicos o el papel que desempeñan las escuelas en sus comunidades?

A continuación, contestamos algunas de las preguntas más comunes y explicamos las diferencias de enfoque entre los tres distritos.

¿Qué factores tuvieron en cuenta los distritos a la hora de seleccionar las escuelas que iban a cerrar?

Denver y Jeffco basaron su decisión mayormente en el número de estudiantes, mientras que Aurora tuvo en cuenta una serie de factores, entre ellos de qué manera se podrían reutilizar los edificios escolares.

En Denver y Jeffco, se consideraron para cierre las escuelas con muy pocos estudiantes: menos de 215 en Denver y menos de 220 en Jeffco.

Los líderes de ambos distritos también consideraron si otra escuela o escuelas situadas a pocas millas de distancia podrían acoger a los estudiantes de la escuela cerrada. Por ejemplo, Denver decidió no cerrar cuatro escuelas pequeñas porque los funcionarios dijeron que no hay ninguna escuela en un radio de 2 millas que pueda recibir a sus estudiantes.

También se consideraron otros factores. En Denver, los administradores querían asegurar que los estudiantes que hablan español pudieran continuar su educación bilingüe o en dos idiomas. Y en Jeffco, los administradores también tuvieron en cuenta la cantidad de espacio del edificio que se está utilizando.

Aurora, que inició su proceso de cierre de escuelas en 2018, adoptó un enfoque diferente. El distrito creó siete regiones y se fijó en las tendencias de matrícula en cada zona, cuántos edificios el distrito podría necesitar, y qué edificios podrían albergar nuevos programas magnet o utilizarse para otros fines.

Una de las razones por las que la comunidad y la junta escolar ayudaron a Aurora a seleccionar este método es porque el distrito está perdiendo estudiantes en algunas regiones, mientras que está añadiendo nuevas subdivisiones en el este de la ciudad. Los líderes vieron una oportunidad de combinar el cierre de escuelas con un plan estratégico más amplio.

¿Por qué Denver y Jeffco están cerrando tantas escuelas a la vez?

La baja en matrícula no es un problema nuevo. Los líderes de Denver y Jeffco dicen que retrasar las decisiones en el pasado ha llevado a las escuelas a carecer de los recursos necesarios para atender bien a los estudiantes, a pesar de contar con subsidios presupuestarios substanciales. Jeffco también quiere evitar decisiones de emergencia que dejen a las familias en apuros, como ocurrió en las escuelas primarias Allendale y Fitzmorris.

Tanto en Denver como en Jeffco, los superintendentes le han pedido a la junta escolar que haga una votación de las recomendaciones de cierre como un paquete: todas las escuelas o ninguna.

“Creemos que resolver esto rápidamente apoyará a nuestra comunidad escolar para que haga algo realmente difícil y luego siga adelante para crear experiencias más prósperas para nuestros estudiantes”, dijo la Superintendente de Jeffco, Tracy Dorland.

Los líderes de Jeffco también dijeron que querían evitar tomar decisiones de cierre cada año, dejando a las familias preocupadas durante mucho tiempo. En Aurora, un proceso más largo con años de participación de la comunidad todavía dejó a las familias frustradas y sorprendidas por las recomendaciones de cierre.

Sin embargo, el superintendente de Aurora, Rico Munn, dijo que trabajar en fases permite que el distrito lleve cuenta del impacto.

“Es un campo muy dinámico en el que estamos hablando sobre matrícula y cambios demográficos, en particular después de la pandemia”, dijo Munn. “Queríamos detenernos y reflexionar durante el proceso”.

Este otoño, el distrito reabrió dos escuelas como escuelas magnet y está comenzando a llevar cuenta de cómo el interés en esas escuelas podría afectar la matrícula en toda la región y el distrito. Pero es demasiado pronto para saberlo, dijo Munn.

¿Por qué no se ha tenido en cuenta el aspecto académico?

El cierre de escuelas basado en los resultados académicos y de los exámenes ya no cuenta con el visto bueno político, y ninguno de los distritos tuvo en cuenta el desempeño para decidir qué escuelas cerrar y cuáles salvar.

En Aurora, el superintendente Munn dijo que el estado ya tiene un sistema de rendición de cuentas que registra el desempeño académico de las escuelas y puede emitir órdenes, entre ellas el cierre, como consecuencia cuando una escuela no mejora. “Pero no había interés en crear un segundo sistema”, dijo.

Sin embargo, eso ha hecho que los padres y la comunidad tengan preguntas: ¿Por qué cerrar escuelas que están funcionando para los estudiantes?

¿Qué pueden hacer las comunidades escolares para frenar los cierres?

No mucho, parece.

En los tres distritos, los administradores han tratado de evitar situaciones en las que los padres, los maestros y los miembros de la comunidad se unan para salvar sus escuelas.

En Aurora, los miembros de la junta escolar cedieron ante la presión pública y rechazaron dos recomendaciones de cierre, aunque cambiaron de parecer dos meses después.

Los miembros de la junta, cuya mayoría aún no habían sido elegidos cuando se puso en marcha el plan Blueprint de Aurora, se preguntaron por qué el distrito no tenía en cuenta la participación de los padres en su escuela o cómo una escuela encajaba en su comunidad al momento de hacer recomendaciones de cierre.

Munn dijo que no sería justo considerar la participación de la comunidad. Los padres que tienen varios trabajos pueden amar su escuela, pero no pueden asistir a las reuniones. Las escuelas más grandes pueden lograr que más padres luchen contra el cierre.

“Todos queríamos evitar que las comunidades escolares pelearan entre sí”, dijo Munn. “No conviene crear una competencia de popularidad”

Denver y Jeffco han seguido en gran medida el ejemplo de Aurora en este sentido, y es una de las razones por las a los miembros de la junta se les está pidiendo que aprueben los cierres como un paquete de escuelas, en vez de una por una.

Dorland, superintendente de Jeffco, llegó a decir que la participación de la comunidad no cambiará el resultado. En Denver, sin embargo, algunos miembros de la junta escolar parecieron sentirse preocupados por la falta de oportunidades para que las comunidades se involucraran en las decisiones para cerrar una escuela individual.

¿Cómo ha influido la comunidad en la toma de decisiones?

De los tres distritos, Aurora tuvo el proceso de participación comunitaria más amplio. Pero en los tres, los administradores tuvieron la última decisión de qué escuelas recomendar para el cierre.

Ahora los líderes de Denver y Jeffco están pidiendo la opinión de los padres y maestros sobre cómo ayudar a que la transición ocurra sin problemas, un enfoque que ha causado ira y frustración.

Aurora inició en 2018 la planificación de lo que se convirtió en Blueprint con consultores que ayudaron con encuestas, grupos de discusión y reuniones en la comunidad. El distrito concluyó que las familias querían más opciones escolares, pero que esas opciones debían ser escuelas del distrito, no escuelas chárter.

El distrito creó regiones con especializaciones únicas y está desarrollando nuevas escuelas magnet que se ajusten a esos temas. La necesidad de cerrar escuelas (o de usarlas con otros fines) estuvo presente en este proceso desde el principio, aunque no todos los miembros de la comunidad lo entendieron así. El distrito no tuvo mucha resistencia en las primeras rondas de cierres de escuelas. Este año los padres resistieron, pero finalmente no tuvieron éxito.

Denver convocó a grupos comunitarios a partir de 2017. El Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee se reunió con la meta de combatir la segregación en las escuelas y abordar los efectos de la gentrificación. Una de sus recomendaciones fue tener un “proceso transparente de consolidación de escuelas” que les permitiera a las comunidades “reimaginar” sus propias escuelas.

Un segundo comité formado este año, llamado Declining Enrollment Advisory Committe, estableció criterios de cierre de escuelas que fueron aplicados a la recomendación más reciente. Pero los miembros del comité estaban divididos porque muchos querían hablar de evitar la necesidad de cerrar escuelas, un tema que los administradores del distrito dijeron que no estaba sobre la mesa.

Ahora la participación de la comunidad de Denver se ha transferido a las escuelas individuales. Cada director de escuela está explicándole la recomendación a su comunidad escolar y haciendo todo lo posible por contestar las preguntas, una estrategia que el Superintendente Alex Marrero describió como “íntima e intensa”

“Creo que la gente que conocen, quieren y adoran, y que siguen, es la que puede decirles: ‘Ok, este es el plan y se necesita por esta razón”, dijo Marrero.

La junta escolar de Denver también organizará una sesión de comentarios públicos el 14 de noviembre.

En Jeffco, Dorland dejó claro que los comentarios de la comunidad no cambiarán las recomendaciones. El propósito de la participación de la comunidad era para determinar qué necesitan las familias para superar la transición.

De todos modos, cada escuela que se va a cerrar ha tenido una sesión de comentarios públicos de una hora con la junta escolar, lo cual es un total de por lo menos 16 horas de comentarios públicos.

Pero en un informe del grupo de consultores que dirige ese trabajo, quedó claro que las familias no estaban contentas. Muchos todavía querían hablar de las recomendaciones y obtener más respuestas a sus preguntas, y el Keystone Policy Center dijo que habían encontrado mucha desinformación y falta de confianza en el proceso.

¿Cómo decidieron los distritos el plazo para informar a los padres?

De los tres distritos, el proceso de Denver es el más breve, con poco más de tres semanas entre el anuncio de la recomendación el 25 de octubre y la votación programada para el 17 de noviembre. Si la junta vota que sí, las 10 escuelas cerrarían al final de este año escolar.

Pero Marrero, superintendente de Denver, argumentó que el proceso en realidad comenzó en junio de 2021 cuando la junta escolar aprobó una resolución que le ordena al superintendente consolidar las escuelas pequeñas.

La junta necesita votar este mes para que haya tiempo suficiente para poner en marcha el plan del próximo otoño, dijo Marrero. También dijo que detener el proceso haría que los estudiantes y el personal huyeran de las escuelas recomendadas para el cierre, empeorando la pérdida de matrícula.

En Jeffco, las familias tendrán más tiempo que en cierres de emergencia anteriores.

Por ejemplo, cuando el distrito cerró Allendale y Fitzmorris, las familias se les informó a las familias en la primavera, cuando faltaban pocas semanas para que terminara el año escolar y la escuela cerrara.

Las familias se perdieron la primera ronda para inscribirse en la escuela de su preferencia, y el distrito trabajó individualmente con las familias para asignar a los estudiantes a otra escuela para el próximo año escolar. Esta vez, la votación de la junta el 10 de noviembre está programada antes de que el distrito empiece su proceso del año para matricularse en la escuela de preferencia. Si las familias quieren elegir una escuela diferente a la que recomienda el distrito, pueden hacerlo.

Aurora también ha aumentado el plazo entre las recomendaciones y los cierres.

En la primera ronda de cierres que se decidió por votación en enero de 2021, la primera escuela cerró en junio de 2021 y las demás se irán eliminando poco a poco. En la segunda ronda de cierres, la junta votó en la primavera de 2022 y las escuelas cerrarán al final del año escolar 2022-23.

¿Los distritos han tenido en cuenta cuántos estudiantes podrían tener en el futuro?

Sí. Los tres distritos usaron un análisis que incluye factores como tasas de natalidad, desarrollo de vivienda y movilidad para pronosticar las tendencias en la población en edad escolar.

En Denver, el análisis más reciente, hecho esta última primavera, muestra que la ciudad tiene menos niños ahora que hace una década. La tasa de nacimientos está bajando más rápido entre las familias hispanas, y el distrito pronostica que eso “tendrá un impacto negativo significativo” en la matrícula. Actualmente, un poco más de la mitad de los casi 90,000 estudiantes de las escuelas públicas de Denver son hispanos.

El análisis también señala que la mayoría de las viviendas planificadas o permitidas son condominios, apartamentos y townhomes, que históricamente representan menos estudiantes que las casas de familia. Sin embargo, algunos miembros de la comunidad y hasta organizaciones como la casi municipal Autoridad de la Vivienda de Denver están cuestionando las proyecciones de Denver.

En Jeffco, un análisis similar presentado ante la junta escolar el miércoles demostró que los estudiantes que proceden de familias en pobreza están abandonando el distrito en mayor proporción que los estudiantes más acomodados. Los dos códigos de salida más comunes que registra el distrito muestran que los estudiantes se están mudando a otros distritos o a otro estado. Los líderes del distrito dijeron que sospechan que la falta de vivienda asequible está expulsando a las familias.

En Aurora, se proyecta que la cantidad de estudiantes crecerá de nuevo, pero no necesariamente en las mismas comunidades que antes.

En el este del distrito están surgiendo nuevas áreas de vivienda, que podrían requerir nuevas escuelas. Las escuelas en el oeste del distrito, más cerca de Denver, siguen experimentando un fuerte descenso porque el alto costo de la vivienda hace que las familias se vayan.

Originalmente, los líderes de Aurora esperaban que la matrícula comenzara a aumentar en 2021, pero el superintendente Munn dijo que la pandemia aceleró las bajas en el oeste, cambiando la expectativa. Todavía se espera un crecimiento, pero el distrito está observando de cerca los datos para analizar cuándo podría ocurrir.

Melanie Asmar es reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado, y cubre las Escuelas Públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, escríbele a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, envíale un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco is spending $45 million at schools that have welcomed students from closed buildings

2023-12-07T00:09:44+00:00

The Jeffco district spent more than $45 million on upgrades to schools taking in students from the 16 elementary schools that closed at the end of last school year.

That cost includes projects that were specifically designed to accommodate the new students, but also projects that were in the works before.

Last December, district staff told the board they expected to spend up to $32 million to expand classrooms, buy new furniture, retrofit buildings that needed to accommodate students with disabilities, or create preschool classrooms.

Figures obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request this month show the district ultimately ended up spending $45.3 million at 22 welcoming schools. But the district could not say how much of that difference is because of higher than anticipated costs, or covering the projects already in the works and not related to the school closures.

The figure includes $7.5 million specifically used to add preschool classrooms as the state rolled out universal preschool. Campbell Elementary, for instance, one of the 16 closed schools, was turned into a preschool center for the area, and had more than $3 million in upgrades. Preschool classrooms are regulated to require certain building accommodations for preschool-age children.

Jeffco schools have had declining enrollment for years. After a few sudden school closures, the district started a comprehensive plan to close several schools. The district said it would help its budget, but also was concerned about the limitations of what small schools offered students and the inequities growing from school to school. The school closures are estimated to save the district $12 million a year in ongoing operating expenses, but renovating other schools to receive those students has proved more expensive than the district expected.

Seanin Rosario, Jeffco’s executive director of finance, planning, and analysis, said the costs specifically related to accommodating more students are “most likely closer” to the $32 million estimated a year ago. “Our system was not able to track only welcoming schools’ projects because there are instances where the projects overlapped,” she wrote in an email.

Some schools that received upgrades had not initially been designated as welcoming schools. Students weren’t forced to go to any one school, and still could participate in open enrollment. So, after many students from closed schools chose a particular school, the district had to designate it as a welcoming school to provide support, including capital upgrades.

Rosario said funding for the projects came from the district’s capital reserve fund. The expenditures are one-time costs. The district is also beginning the process of deciding what to do with the closed buildings, including selling or leasing them.

Look up how much the district spent at each of the 22 schools that took in students from closed elementary schools:

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco’s Moore Middle School, Pomona High School to merge into 6-12

2023-06-23T22:55:27+00:00

The Jeffco school board voted unanimously Thursday night to approve the closure of Moore Middle School, which will merge with Pomona High School to form a 6-12.

This move comes as part of the district’s efforts to address declining enrollment and make better use of resources. While Moore Middle School will continue its operations for the 2023-24 school year, its doors are set to close permanently after the spring term.

Moore Middle School is the first school to close under the second phase of Jeffco’s Regional Opportunity for Thriving Schools plan. The first phase of the plan was completed in November when the board voted to close 16 elementary schools. The second phase will focus on consolidation recommendations for K-8 and middle schools with possible additional closure recommendations starting in August.

With the merger of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades from the middle school into Pomona’s building, the high school will need to undergo renovation and expansion. The construction is estimated to cost the district between $1.8 million and $2.5 million.

The construction plans call for the creation of a wing for sixth and seventh grades on the second floor of the existing building, separate drop-off entrances for younger students, space for incoming staff, additional security measures, and an expanded cafeteria to accommodate more students who eat lunch on campus.

After discussions with community members, Pomona Principal Pat Rock and Moore Principal Brenda Fletcher brought a request to the Jeffco school board in March to combine both the middle school and high school in Pomona’s building.

The closure of Moore is unique in the way that this was requested by the Jeffco community and not by the district administration or the board of education, officials said.

“I think this is a really great example of an idea that came directly from the community to solve a challenge that they feel every day, and they wanted to get ahead of the district in terms of coming up with their own solution,” said Lisa Relou, Jeffco’s chief of strategy and communications.

Community forums were held at both schools before the proposal to close Moore was brought before the board.

According to district data, Moore Middle School uses 46% of its building capacity while Pomona High School uses 57% — the plan to merge facilities aims to maximize resources, which, according to the district, will save over $1 million a year.

The two schools are not far apart, with just a 5-minute drive between them.

The district’s recent work has been spurred by years of declining enrollment. Even though the number of residents in Jeffco increased over two decades, the population of school-age children decreased by 29,918 from 2000 to 2020.

Fewer children are being born. According to the district, 2020 marked the lowest number of births recorded in 15 years.

Most Jeffco middle schools are losing more students than they attract through school choice. State law allows students to enroll in any district that will accept them. Meanwhile, about 12% of Jeffco families enroll their students in charter schools.

Even though she voted for the merger, board member Danielle Varda said she hopes the district takes a careful approach to issues such as helping families transition and integrating younger students with the older grades.

“I want to make sure we’re still creating a really great experience for them and their families,” Varda said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the next phase of school consolidations will affect K-8s and middle schools. While the district website originally said secondary schools would be included, a district spokeswoman said no high schools are being considered for closure. The district website has been updated as well.

Sara Martin is an intern with Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Sara at smartin@chalkbeat.org

Jeffco board votes to close two more schools amid enrollment decline

2023-10-13T02:00:20+00:00

Jeffco’s school board voted 4-1 Thursday night to close two district K-8 schools that together serve more than 500 students and have nearly 100 staff.

The two schools, Coal Creek Canyon K-8 and Arvada K-8, are the smallest of five K-8 schools in Jeffco Public Schools. Board members said that although closing schools is difficult, they worried that not closing schools would just kick the problem down the road instead of solving it.

“When you spread too thin then you leave an articulation area with just a little bit here and there, rather than really being able to concentrate those resources to the benefit of the whole area,” said board member Paula Reed, who voted in favor of closing the schools. “I believe in the end it serves the greatest good to the greatest number.”

Arvada K-8 will close at the end of this school year. When Coal Creek Canyon K-8 closes depends on whether the school board approves a charter replacement this January.

The closures, which the school district recommended in August, come amid a long-term decline in enrollment in Jeffco schools. Colorado funds school districts based on student count, and districts like Jeffco, in turn fund their schools based on enrollment as well, but small schools require extra money to maintain the basics. The district closed 16 elementary schools last year, and earlier this year approved a plan for a middle school to close at the end of this school year and merge with a high school.

Parents have publicly opposed closing Coal Creek and Arvada K-8, citing concerns about longer drives to school and the district’s budget strategy.

School board member Danielle Varda voted against the closures. Varda called the plan into question and asked for better solutions for these two schools.

“What I see is a need for a comprehensive plan for this area,” Varda said. “I lost sight of the urgency.”

The moves to close more schools at once are meant to prevent surprises, like when the district announced the closures of Allendale and Fitzmorris elementary schools in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Families had just months of notice before those closures.

The vote brings the total number of school closures in Jeffco — Colorado’s second-largest district — to 21 since 2021. Jeffco’s official enrollment last school year was 77,078 students, down from more than 86,000 in 2017-18. Additionally, the district notes that their buildings had space to serve 96,000 students, but were only serving 69,000 last year.

There are currently no plans to close any Jeffco high schools.

The resolution approved to close the schools also included an update on a plan to try to replace at least the elementary portion of Coal Creek Canyon K-8 with a charter school.

District leaders have said that although they believe it is not sustainable for them to continue operating that school, which is currently serving fewer than 100 students, they think a charter school may be more successful. They are also considering a charter school because the community in the canyon, and against the border with Boulder County, wouldn’t have many nearby Jeffco schools as options if Coal Canyon closes.

If one is approved, the district may allow the charter school to operate out of the Coal Creek Canyon building, at least to begin with. It’s rare in Colorado, outside of Denver, for a school district to share space with a charter school.

So far, the district has received letters of interest from three applicants: Jefferson Academy, Compass for Lifelong Discovery, and Sojournings Academy. All three of the applicants are proposing schools that would serve multiple grade levels beyond elementary school.

In an accelerated timeline, the board would be able to vote on whether to approve a charter application on Jan. 10 — just two days before the district’s choice enrollment window closes.

As a result, the district is suggesting that current families of Coal Creek Canyon K-8 use the choice enrollment form to select an option the district will create for a “Charter school serving Coal Creek Canyon - pending board of education authorization.” If the school board approves one of the charter applicants, then families can receive an offer from the approved school and can decide whether to accept it.

In that scenario, the district would change the attendance boundaries so that families in the canyon would otherwise be assigned to Three Creeks K-8, a 1,000 student school about 10 miles away.

If the school board doesn’t approve a charter school for Coal Canyon, then the district will delay the closure of the school’s elementary grades for one more school year. Middle school students would be educated through the district’s remote learning program during the next school year; they would have the option of being in the Coal Creek Canyon building with a staff member supervising the online learning.

Arvada K-8, one of two schools the Jeffco school board voted to close on Oct. 12, has approximately 560 students. Of those, 86% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch based on their household income.

Lawmaker makes last-minute plea for community school

Parents have spoken out against the closure of the two schools in past meetings. There were also designated hearings this month that allowed for one hour of public comment about each of the two closed schools.

In past meetings, one mother talked about how the additional 10-mile drive to another school during winter weather conditions would require a lot more than 15 minutes.

Another parent questioned the board and district’s stance that it can’t afford to subsidize or give extra money to support Coal Creek Canyon K-8, while still spending much more on increasing salaries and other projects.

The district has countered that the challenge isn’t exclusively about the district’s budget, but the resources and opportunities that schools can or can’t offer when they’re too small.

While the small schools may have some benefits that appeal to parents, Superintendent Tracy Dorland said at a previous meeting that the fewer staff a school can afford, for example, the staff who do work at them have to wear multiple hats, such as when secretaries also serve as school nurses.

Families against the closures were in attendance at Thursday’s school board meeting, but did not sign up to speak again.

Colorado Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, a Democrat, did attend Thursday and asked the school board not to close Arvada K-8 and instead to consider turning it into a community school. That’s a school model that partners with nonprofit organizations to address external factors — such as poverty, hunger, or medical issues — that affect families and children’s ability to learn.

Zenzinger pointed out that about 15% of the students at Arvada K-8 are learning English as a new language, and that the school serves as an informal newcomer center for new immigrant students in the area.

Varda noted that although the district is committing to hire bilingual staff at the schools that will receive Arvada K-8 students, that staff could be used to strengthen the school instead of closing it.

This fall, Arvada K-8 learned that it finally earned a state rating that would be high enough for it to avoid state intervention. Board members said that while they would still have to close the school, they acknowledged it’s unfair that Arvada K-8 won’t be able to truly celebrate the achievement.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Migrant students boosting Denver Public Schools’ enrollment after years of declines

2023-10-03T21:17:52+00:00

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Newly arrived migrant students are boosting Denver Public Schools’ enrollment this fall, especially at the elementary school level.

The spike follows a years-long decline in enrollment in DPS, which is still Colorado’s largest school district with about 89,000 students last year. The enrollment decreases have been so steep that Superintendent Alex Marrero recommended closing 10 schools at the end of last school year, though the school board agreed to close only three.

While this boost in enrollment will mean more per-pupil state funding for DPS this year, and likely more funding targeted to help English language learners next year, district staff and school board members acknowledged the enrollment increase could be temporary.

“We don’t know how many of these students are going to stay for how long,” board member Scott Esserman said at a meeting of the board’s finance committee Monday.

More than 1,470 new students from another country enrolled in DPS between July and September this year, according to a presentation by district staff at Monday’s meeting. That’s 76% more students from other countries than last year.

Elementary schools are receiving the most students, with 747 new elementary-age students coming from other countries to DPS this summer and fall.

About a third of all the new students are from three countries: Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia. That aligns with the increase in new migrants arriving by bus in Denver this fall, many from Venezuela. Over the past week, an average of nearly 300 migrants have arrived in the city each day, according to a press release from city officials Monday.

City officials are working to temporarily house newly arrived families, and DPS teachers have been scrambling to help when families’ assistance runs out. On Monday, Denver Human Services extended the time that migrant families can stay in city-provided shelter to 37 days, a week longer than before. That change takes effect Wednesday.

Some DPS schools, especially those with dedicated programming and classrooms for Spanish-speaking students, are receiving more newly arrived students than others.

The schools that have received the most are Lena Archuleta Elementary, Ashley Elementary, Bryant Webster Dual Language School, McMeen Elementary, Place Bridge Academy, Denver Green School Southeast, Hamilton Middle School, George Washington High, Thomas Jefferson High, and Abraham Lincoln High, according to the presentation.

Russell Ramsey, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning, told the committee Monday that the boost in students has swelled some class sizes.

“As classes get close to the red alert of 35 or 36 (students), this is when we’re taking schools within the (enrollment) zone or schools nearby and trying to really assess where we have a place and space to make sure our classes are not getting too big,” Ramsey said.

Even though school budgets are based on enrollment projections made by DPS the previous spring, schools that are unexpectedly enrolling more students this fall are getting extra per-pupil funding through a budgeting process DPS calls its fall adjustment, district officials said. The official student count day for state funding was earlier this week.

School board member Scott Baldermann noted that migrant students may need extra support in school to deal with the trauma they’ve experienced or to learn a second language. District staff said state and federal funding targeted at helping English language learners is a year delayed, meaning that this year’s funding is based on last year’s student counts.

“I’m incredibly proud of the district for supporting the students new to the country,” Baldermann said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board wants public feedback on proposed school closure, declining enrollment policies

2023-09-11T23:13:08+00:00

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Rather than closing schools with enrollment below a set number of students, the Denver school board is considering a new approach. A pair of policy proposals would cap enrollment at some schools, adjust attendance boundaries, and set other rules and a timeline for school closures.

The goal is to be more transparent and equitable in deciding which schools to close in the face of declining enrollment in Denver Public Schools. But the policies wouldn’t stop the closures. A district analysis found that achieving the enrollment levels envisioned in one of the proposals would require the district to have 15 fewer elementary schools than it has now.

Earlier this year, the board balked at closing more than three.

The Denver school board is inviting feedback on the two proposals during the public comment portion of its meeting Sept. 18, but it has not yet set a date to vote.

Some board members said they’re eager to get a policy in writing after a flawed school closure process this past spring. Others want to take it slow.

“We need to be very, very cautious moving forward here and not move too quickly, and take into consideration what the potential unintended consequences are,” board member Scott Esserman said at a school board work session last week.

One of the proposed policies, known officially as Executive Limitation 18, says school closure decisions should not be based on a school’s low test scores or low enrollment.

Instead, it says the superintendent should “propose schools for consolidation and unification that equitably distributes the burden of declining enrollment across all of Denver.”

A proposed timeline would have the superintendent announce any schools recommended for closure in September. The board would invite public feedback from families at those schools in November and then vote in January, a much longer timeline than happened this year. Students impacted by school closures would have priority enrollment into all other district-run and charter schools in DPS, the proposed Executive Limitation 18 says.

In the past, nearly all of the public feedback has been against closing schools. But the proposed policy makes clear that closures are coming.

“Due to the declining enrollment expected for at least five more years, the Board of Education believes it is necessary to consolidate and unify schools to maintain the financial viability of the district,” the proposed Executive Limitation 18 says.

The other proposed policy, known as Executive Limitation 19, would require the superintendent to maintain “financially stable enrollment” at each elementary school. The proposal defines that as enrollment of “300 students (two classes of 25 students per grade), 450 students (three classes of 25 students per grade), or 600 students (four classes of 25 students per grade).”

Enrollment at any elementary school should not exceed 600 students, the proposed policy says. Board members have said that capping enrollment at popular elementary schools could bolster enrollment at smaller schools that are losing students. Executive Limitation 19 also proposes the superintendent analyze and adjust school boundaries every four years or less.

Four DPS elementary schools had more than 600 students last school year, according to state data. Thirty-six elementary or K-8 schools had fewer than 300 students, the data shows.

In order for each DPS elementary school to have at least 300 students by the year 2027, DPS would need “15 fewer elementary schools across the system,” according to a memo from DPS officials in charge of finance and enrollment to Superintendent Alex Marrero.

Having 15 fewer elementary schools could save DPS $14 million, the memo says, which could be “reinvested in other programming, compensation for educators, and other expenses to improve the student experience within DPS.”

But to achieve that, the proposed Executive Limitation 18 says DPS should “not use enrollment minimums (e.g., 215 students) as bright line criteria for consolidation.

“Schools of any enrollment size are eligible for consolidation,” it says.

The two proposed policies were first floated in April, a month after the board voted to close three DPS schools with very low enrollment. The process was full of fits and starts, with the board rejecting the superintendent’s initial school closure recommendations and then reversing itself four months later with only a day’s notice to the public.

Proposed Executive Limitation 18 acknowledges that most under-enrolled DPS schools serve a disproportionate number of students of color, students from low-income families, students learning English as a second language, and students with disabilities.

It says DPS should hold regional meetings “to help inform and co-create future recommendations for addressing declining enrollment.” The meetings should convey information about demographic trends in the region, as well as “the positive implications of proceeding and the negative implications of not proceeding” with school closures, it says.

DPS schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment often have to cut art or music programs or combine different grades into a single classroom.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco is recommending closing two K-8 schools this year in second round of closures

2023-08-24T23:00:26+00:00

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Jeffco, Colorado’s second largest school district, is recommending the closure of two K-8 schools as the district continues to address the decline in student enrollment.

Sixteen elementary schools were closed last year in the first round of the district’s closure plan.

The two schools, Coal Creek Canyon K-8 and Arvada K-8, are the smallest of five K-8s in Jeffco Public Schools. Coal Creek, which is located near the Boulder County border and has fewer than 100 students, is also smaller than any of the district’s 17 middle schools.

The proposed closure of Coal Creek K-8, however, will include a search for a charter school provider that may reopen in the community.

The Jeffco school board received the recommendation Thursday, but will vote on the proposed closures at its Oct. 12 meeting. There will be four school-based community meetings and two formal one-hour public hearings with the school board before the vote.

If approved, the latest closures would bring the number of schools closed in Jeffco to 21 since 2021.

Before last year’s elementary school closures, the district said their buildings had the capacity to serve 96,000 students, but were only filled with about 69,000. With the closures to date, the district now has the capacity for about 88,000 students, and is currently serving about 66,500.

Due to declining birth rates and fewer children living in the area, the number of students entering elementary schools is not replacing the larger group of students graduating and exiting the district.

As the district considers secondary school enrollment, the board has already decided to close Moore Middle School at the end of this school year. The school will merge with Pomona High School, which will serve students in grades six through 12.

The two K-8 closures would impact about 524 students and 97 staff members. The district estimates 26 of the students impacted have also been displaced by a previous school closure.

District leaders say they’ll need to closely continue to monitor enrollment trends, but so far, aren’t planning for a third round of closures next year. A moratorium on high school closures is still in effect until June 2024.

A more complicated proposal for Coal Creek

Lisa Relou, chief of strategy and communications for Jeffco, said this round of recommendations was more complicated, in part because these secondary schools are not located as close to each other as elementary schools.

District leaders said they visited the Coal Creek Canyon community in the spring and heard that families are interested in small schools within their close-knit community. Currently, the closest Jeffco school, Three Creeks K-8, is more than 10 times larger with more than 1,000 students, and approximately 10 miles, or a 15-minute drive away. The school does have room for the Coal Creek students.

But, “it’ll be a significant change for these families,” Relou said.

The district plans to search for charter providers willing to open a school in the area. Regardless, the middle school grades will close at the end of the school year, if the closure is approved. But if the district receives interest, then the closure of the elementary grades will be delayed for another year while the charter application is considered.

Coal Creek Canyon K-8 has fewer than 100 students.

If no viable providers show interest in the next month, then the full school will close at the end of this school year.

Coal Creek’s building can accommodate 200 students, but in that canyon community, Relou said, a school likely will never have that many students. The highest enrollment the district has on record for the school was in 2013-14 with 159 students.

“There are charter schools out there designed to serve a small number of students,” Relou said. “It’s just not sustainable as a Jeffco traditional school.”

As a traditional school, Jeffco not only gives Coal Creek the highest funding per student of any school in the district, but has also subsidized the school with an additional $469,468 in the last year.

In the meantime, district leaders are also researching how other districts subsidize small schools, and say they’re open to considering a transportation arrangement with neighboring districts that may have a more attractive school option for Coal Creek families.

Last school year, more than a third of Coal Creek’s students came from outside Jeffco boundaries.

The proposed Arvada K-8 closure

Arvada K-8 was told last school year that it was being considered for closure because it is on the state’s watchlist for years of low performance, but ultimately it was selected because of its low and declining enrollment, and complicated boundary placement, district officials said.

Currently, Arvada K-8 has approximately 557 students. Of those, 86% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of poverty.

Last year, the school had 550 students including 351 who lived in the neighborhood. But another 581 K-8 students who lived in the school boundary chose to go to a different school. Of those, 135 went to charter schools, while the majority went to other Jeffco schools.

Arvada K-8 is the only K-8 in the district that has separate boundaries for elementary and middle school students.

However, the school isn’t even within its own elementary boundary.

And, because it has separate boundaries, the school also serves as a separate middle school, instead of a K-8, meaning that it takes a significant number of new students at sixth grade who have been through traditional elementary schools.

If the school is approved to close, the district would redraw the area boundaries allowing North Arvada Middle School to take in all of the sixth through eighth grade students, and elementary students would be redrawn into a boundary to attend Lawrence Elementary. The district also notes that nearby Swanson and Secrest elementaries have space to accommodate students who instead want to use the choice enrollment process to attend those schools.

Students in the special needs program, called the Significant Support Needs Center Program, would be relocated to the Pomona 6-12 in the 2024-25 school year.

The district is estimating there will be renovation costs of up to $500,000 at North Arvada Middle School, and about $675,000 at Lawrence Elementary if the latest proposed closures are approved.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

After her old Denver school was closed, one 7-year-old was excited and nervous to start anew

2023-08-21T18:48:08+00:00

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Just before 7 a.m. Monday, the first day of school in Denver Public Schools, 7-year-old Sara sat on her family’s couch, velcroing brand-new sneakers so glittery that when she ran her hand over the outside, sparkles clung to her fingertips.

The sneakers were the same powder blue color as her favorite cartoon character, Stitch from the Disney movie “Lilo & Stitch,” who also adorned her T-shirt and backpack.

Sara woke up early, with minimal prodding from her mother. She is one of more than 87,000 students heading back at approximately 200 schools in DPS.

Sara was excited despite a big change. Her old school, Fairview Elementary, was one of three schools closed by DPS this past spring because of low enrollment — a persistent problem caused by lower birth rates and high housing prices that have pushed families out of the city.

DPS’ decision to close small schools sparked pushback from families, accusations of a rushed process, and clashes between district and city officials. After the decision was made, the district reassigned Fairview students to Cheltenham Elementary less than 1 ½ miles away.

“Mama, do you know where Cheltenham is?” Sara asked when they got in the car.

Her mother, Najah Abu Serryeh, put the school’s address into her phone’s GPS. It said they would arrive in 10 minutes. From the back seat, Sara was a mix of nerves and enthusiasm.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to go to school,” she said.

Then, the second-grader added: “I was scared that people will be mean to me.” Two of her friends had moved away over the summer, one to the city of Aurora and the other to California.

“But you have a good principal,” her mother said. “She will not let anybody be mean to you.”

Abu Serryeh had opposed the closure of Fairview, a big brick building in Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood. She testified before the school board last November when Fairview was on a list of underenrolled schools facing closure. She told the board members that when her kids — Sara and her sister, who is now in middle school — heard about the possible closure, they cried.

Sara stands outside Cheltenham Elementary, waiting for the school doors to open.

“Fairview for them, it’s not just a school,” she told the board. “It’s like their second home.”

The Denver Housing Authority also opposed the closure of Fairview, arguing that its redevelopment of the subsidized housing in Sun Valley would bring hundreds more elementary-age students to the neighborhood and boost Fairview’s enrollment.

Despite those projections, the school board voted in March to close Fairview and two other schools: Math and Science Leadership Academy and Denver Discovery School. The vote took place with almost no warning — and Abu Serryeh was the only parent in the audience.

“It’s so unfair,” she told reporters afterward.

But after touring Cheltenham and meeting the principal in the spring, Abu Serryeh said she now feels differently. Combining students from the two schools means Cheltenham will have much higher enrollment — and the per-pupil dollars that come with it.

DPS had projected Fairview would have just 118 students this year if it had stayed open, while Cheltenham alone had 286 last year. Although Fairview students could choose to attend a school other than Cheltenham, it’s likely Cheltenham will have more than 300 students this year.

With more funding, Cheltenham will be able to offer programming that small Fairview could not.

“My daughter will have more opportunity and learning in Cheltenham, more than she was being offered in Fairview,” Abu Serryeh said in an interview. “She will have more classes like music, science, and dance. More than what she had at Fairview.”

And the sense that Fairview was like a second home? That may still exist at Cheltenham. Fairview teachers were guaranteed a job at Cheltenham if they wanted it.

When Sara and her mom pulled up Monday, the 7-year-old immediately recognized several staff members who were standing outside with walkie talkies, greeting families.

“Hiiiii!” one said, enveloping Sara in a big hug. “Happy first day of school!”

Even Sara’s second-grade teacher is a former Fairview educator. After walking to her new classroom, Sara let go of her mom’s hand, eager to start the school day. Her mom had to stop her to remind her to take a carton of cereal from the breakfast tray before Sara bounded to her seat.

“Byeeee,” her mother called after her.

Najah Abu Serryeh walks hand-in-hand with her 7-year-old daughter Sara to Sara’s second-grade classroom.

Outside, a yellow school bus full of kids pulled to the curb. The district had promised Fairview families transportation to Cheltenham, but Sara wasn’t able to ride the bus Monday because her family moved out of Sun Valley when their home was demolished as part of the redevelopment. Abu Serryeh watched the students stream off the bus. One little girl caught her eye.

“This is the friend she asked about,” Abu Serryeh said — the one Sara thought had moved to California. “She will be so happy when she sees her friends.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Waitlists at many Denver schools are shrinking. Check your school’s 2023 choice data here.

2023-07-18T22:46:13+00:00

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Waitlists at many Denver public schools are shrinking as enrollment decreases in Colorado’s largest school district, according to school choice data from this past spring.

Five years ago, East High School had the longest waitlist for incoming ninth graders in all of Denver Public Schools with 226 students. This year, there were just 28 incoming ninth graders on East’s waitlist after the first round of school choice, an 87% decrease.

East had a hard year, with three shootings on or near the campus that resulted in two student deaths and sparked a districtwide reckoning on safety and the reintroduction of police in schools. But many other schools are seeing their waitlists shrink, too.

The district’s largest middle school, McAuliffe International, had the second-longest waitlist for incoming sixth graders five years ago with 183 students. This year, there were no students on McAuliffe International’s waitlist at the end of the first round of school choice.

Elementary schools have been hardest hit by declining enrollment, and many waitlists reflect that. In 2018, Steck Elementary had the longest waitlist for incoming kindergarteners with 144 students. This year, Steck’s waitlist was just 43 students.

In all, Chalkbeat counted 76 schools where waitlists shrank, often by large amounts, and 33 schools where waitlists grew, sometimes by just one or two students. The rest of DPS’ approximately 200 schools either don’t have a waitlist or don’t have comparable data.

School choice means students in DPS — and in districts across Colorado — can apply to attend any school, even if they don’t live within that school’s boundary. DPS invites families to submit school choice applications in two rounds.

The first round is the most competitive. This year, families submitted applications in January and February for schools this fall, ranking up to 12 choices. They learned in late April where their children were accepted. Generally, if there are more students than seats at a particular school, the district holds a lottery. Students who don’t get a seat are put on a waitlist.

DPS’ overall enrollment has been shrinking, dropping from about 93,350 students in 2019-20 to 88,760 last school year — a nearly 5% decrease in four years. And the district predicts the downward trend will continue due to lower birth rates and higher housing costs.

Laurie Premer, the district’s director of enrollment services, said in an interview that the shrinking waitlists are likely a symptom of declining enrollment. But there could be other reasons, too, she said, including that families are happier with their assigned boundary schools.

The percentage of DPS students who participate in school choice has held steady over the past five years at about 44%, according to a district report.

A few schools are bucking the trend of shrinking waitlists. The sixth grade waitlists at Merrill and Morey middle schools were notably longer after the first round of choice this year than in 2018. Morey’s grew more than 20 times as long from 2 to 47 students.

Northfield High School had the longest waitlist in the district with 278 incoming ninth graders waiting for a seat. That’s a 35% increase from 2018, when the waitlist was at 205 students.

The searchable database below shows how many students in kindergarten, and sixth and ninth grades were on each school’s waitlist at the end of the first round of school choice this year. The database also shows how many students were accepted at each school.

There are several caveats to the data, which are detailed below the database.

Here are the caveats:

The count of accepted students includes both students who applied through school choice and those who live in the school’s boundary and will likely attend. Students who do not submit a school choice application are enrolled at their boundary schools.

The number of accepted students may look artificially low at some schools that span grade levels, such as K-8 or 6-12 schools. That’s because students who already attend that school don’t have to apply to stay for the next level. For instance, an 8th grader at a 6-12 school wouldn’t have to apply to attend the school in 9th grade, even if they live outside the boundary.

A single student can be on multiple waitlists. A student who was accepted to her third-choice school would be waitlisted at her first- and second-choice schools.

The waitlists will change by fall as students move in and out of the city or change their minds. DPS’ second round of school choice is now open and runs through Aug. 31.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver’s first big merger of charter school networks poses leadership test

2023-06-28T20:48:25+00:00

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It was portrayed as an exciting plan with lofty goals: Two of Denver’s homegrown charter school networks would join forces to strengthen academics, support students’ mental health, and better prepare them for life beyond high school. English learners and students with disabilities would achieve exceptional results.

The merger of Rocky Mountain Prep and STRIVE Prep, announced last summer, also would help the organizations survive a host of challenges: declining enrollment, tighter budgets, and more scrutiny of their academic records by a skeptical school board.

To shepherd the merger, the schools’ leaders chose a charter school executive named Tricia Noyola, who had overseen a major charter expansion in Austin, Texas.

But the past year has been tense and chaotic, with hundreds of employees from the two networks leaving, an about-face by network leaders on which name the new network will carry, and a chorus of concerns about Noyola’s leadership. Now, with just days until the merger becomes official, it remains to be seen if the two networks will be stronger together or an ill-fated match.

The new network will take the Rocky Mountain Prep name and serve nearly 5,000 students in preschool through 12th grade across a dozen campuses. It will be the second largest charter network in the city and carry the hopes and dreams of thousands of Denver families, many of them low-income parents of color and immigrant families who fear their children won’t get the education they deserve in district-run schools.

Meanwhile, STRIVE Prep, once a key player and thought leader in the charter sector, will cease to exist.

Supporters of Noyola, who has been CEO of both networks for the past eight months though they are still separate organizations, see a Latina leader who comes from the same background as many students, champions student achievement, and brings a strong hand to management decisions.

Patrick Donovan, chair of the Rocky Mountain Prep board, said Noyola has tremendous expertise in running schools, particularly when it comes to academics and school culture.

Detractors paint a different picture, describing a leader who rules through fear, drives away experienced educators, and fails to support new teachers. They also see a single-minded pursuit of higher test scores and a diminished focus on student mental health, support for students with disabilities, and programming that elevates student voices, such as middle school speech and debate classes and social justice-themed events for high schoolers.

Tricia Noyola, CEO of STRIVE Prep and Rocky Mountain Prep

Under Noyola, who’s on track to earn $340,000 from the two networks this school year — more than any superintendent in Colorado — teachers have been urged not to unionize and warned not to talk to the media about the merger.

“There’s only one reason people want to unionize, and it’s because there’s mistrust and dissatisfaction, and you feel unappreciated,” said Jenny Bisha, whose job as STRIVE Prep’s director of continuous improvement is being cut at the end of June. Bisha has not been involved in any unionization efforts.

Several educators said their recent experiences at Rocky Mountain Prep or STRIVE Prep schools were so toxic or upsetting, it soured them on charter schools or teaching for good. Two said they counseled families to leave Rocky Mountain Prep because the schools weren’t meeting their children’s needs.

Chalkbeat spoke to more than three dozen people for this story, including current and former employees, network board members, parents, students, and education policy experts. Some asked that their names not be used for fear they could lose their jobs, have trouble getting references, or face retaliation.

Noyola declined repeated requests for interviews, but provided written answers to questions.

“I certainly set a high standard and expect everyone to meet it. To do any less would be a disservice to our students and families,“ she wrote. “I may be demanding, but I always strive to be fair.”

Board members from both networks suggested that Noyola’s critics are holding her to a higher standard than they did the former leaders of STRIVE and Rocky Mountain Prep, both of whom were white men.

“As a woman of color in this space, sometimes you’re subjected to more criticism than, I think, white men,” said Amber Valdez, vice chair of the STRIVE Prep board. “I think that Tricia came in with a clear vision and made no apologies. She’s not conflict averse, because she wants to get things done.”

STRIVE, Rocky Mountain make plans to merge

Leaders from STRIVE Prep and Rocky Mountain Prep publicly announced plans to join forces last August, saying the merger would create a cohesive preschool through 12th grade pathway — something they said families had sought for years.

Rocky Mountain has four elementary schools and STRIVE, since the closing of two middle schools this month, has eight mostly secondary schools.

Last summer, both organizations were in moments of transition.

“No [charter] network that I know of came out of a pandemic feeling like they were in a strong position,” said STRIVE Prep founder and former CEO Chris Gibbons.

Schools were also facing the end of a huge influx of federal COVID stimulus dollars that had helped pay for extra staff and services over the last few years, he said. Budget cuts were inevitable.

Valdez also said STRIVE families and stakeholders told leaders “that what STRIVE was missing was a clear vision, a clear goal.”

She and other board members say that’s what Noyola brought to the table.

Noyola had moved to Denver from Austin in spring 2021 to take the helm of Rocky Mountain Prep when founder and CEO James Cryan left.

In spring 2022, Gibbons announced he was leaving STRIVE for a job with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (The foundation is a supporter of Chalkbeat. See a full list of our funders and read our ethics policy.)

Noyola applied to replace Gibbons, proposing that STRIVE and Rocky Mountain Prep merge and that she lead the combined network, according to STRIVE Board member Ulysses Estrada, who chaired the network’s CEO succession task force.

Gibbons said STRIVE leaders had previously considered the possibility of merging with another charter school or network. Rocky Mountain Prep had gone further, doubling the size of its network by taking over two struggling schools — a charter school in Denver and a district-run school in Aurora — by 2018.

STRIVE Prep and Rocky Mountain Prep serve similar populations, mostly students of color, with many coming from low-income families. About half of Rocky Mountain Prep students and nearly three-quarters of STRIVE students are English learners.

“Quite frankly, we were evaluating Tricia as any other CEO candidate,” said Estrada. “If we didn’t think Tricia had the right skills to lead STRIVE, we wouldn’t pursue [the merger].”

By July of 2022, the board decided that Noyola and the merger both were right for STRIVE. The two networks decided she would continue leading Rocky Mountain Prep for another year and become CEO of the united network when the merger was final on July 1, 2023.

Denver is a tough market for charter school expansion

Experts say the number of charter school mergers around the country has ticked up in recent years, sometimes fueled by the departure of founders who launched networks in the early 2000s, declining enrollment, or financial pressures.

STRIVE has closed three schools in the last three years, including the Lake and Kepner campuses earlier this month. Denver has seen a spate of other charter school closures and other networks have slowed their growth.

“Sadly, this wasn’t a merging. It was a takeover.”

A 2021 analysis by the Charter School Growth Fund concluded that if charter networks want to grow in the Denver market, mergers are the only reasonable path. The growth fund, which has provided funding to both STRIVE and Rocky Mountain Prep, helps fund charter school expansion around the nation.

Gibbons said the step is an important long-term strategy to address shrinking enrollment, financial sustainability, and a political climate in Denver that’s become less friendly to charter schools.

As for the recent spate of staff departures and simmering discontent in some quarters, he said, “We always knew this would be a very disruptive strategy in the short term.”

Merger prompts major cultural change at STRIVE Prep

When leaders from the two charter networks unveiled the merger plan last August, they said the new network would bear the STRIVE name. STRIVE leaders tapped the network’s lead attorney, Jessica Johnson, to serve as interim CEO until the union was official.

But within three months, Johnson was gone — a major personnel change that current and former employees said happened abruptly with no explanation.

Both Johnson and the network agreed to “communicate to everyone that Ms. Johnson’s departure from STRIVE Prep was voluntary,” according to a copy of Johnson’s severance agreement obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. The agreement promised Johnson would receive her interim CEO salary through June 30.

Johnson declined to comment for this story.

On November 2, the STRIVE Prep board named Noyola the new CEO of STRIVE Prep, making her the leader of two different charter school networks simultaneously. She received a base annual salary of $220,000 from Rocky Mountain Prep and, when she took the top job at STRIVE, her monthly consulting fee was upped from $4,000 to $5,000. In April, that consulting fee was doubled to $10,000 a month, retroactive to Oct 1.

That means Noyola’s pay, including a $24,000 bonus she received from Rocky Mountain Prep this year, totals $340,000. That’s more than the CEO of DSST, Denver’s largest charter school network, or the superintendents of Denver and Jeffco, Colorado’s two largest school districts, earned this year.

Noyola wrote, “I was asked to do the job of two individuals when I became CEO of both networks, and my compensation remains lower than that of the combined compensation of both roles.”

Next school year, Noyola will earn a base salary of $290,000, with the possibility of a bonus.

In February, STRIVE board members announced a reversal on the new network’s name. Rocky Mountain Prep’s name, practices, and standards would replace those of STRIVE. They cited data from a consultant’s report that showed better academic and instructional results at Rocky Mountain Prep than STRIVE.

In 2022, fewer than 10% of students at five STRIVE schools were proficient on state math tests. The same was true in literacy for one STRIVE school. About 30% of all Rocky Mountain Prep students were proficient on math and literacy tests, still below the state average.

Parent Tracy Hill said her fourth grader has had a good experience at Rocky Mountain Prep–Berkeley since preschool. Keeping the Rocky Mountain Prep name feels like a win.

But this spring, Hill was surprised to learn from a reporter that the closest STRIVE school — the Lake campus — would close and won’t be an option when her daughter goes to sixth grade.

“That is a shame, because that’s walking distance from our house,” she said.

Meanwhile, the name change rocked some STRIVE students and families.

“Everyone in my neighborhood has probably gone to a STRIVE Prep school,” said Jacobo Gracia-Meza, who graduated from STRIVE Prep–SMART Academy in June and is headed to Colorado State University in the fall.

“The thought of our name being taken away, it’s also taking the hard work we put in,” he said.

His parents, meanwhile, are worried about the cost of buying new school uniforms for his younger brother.

This summer, STRIVE Prep–SMART will become Rocky Mountain Prep–SMART.

Educators see new emphasis on test prep amid merger plans

Zion Gezaw, an assistant principal at STRIVE Prep’s Westwood middle school for most of the 2022-23 school year, noticed a shift around the time Noyola was named CEO of STRIVE schools.

First, it was little things. Teachers were told they had to use the same colors and borders on their bulletin boards. Then rules came down requiring strict adherence to the lessons and pacing in the curriculum.

The adaptations that Gezaw and the school’s eighth grade English teacher had made to create more culturally responsive and engaging lessons, such as adding the young adult novel “The Poet X,” were no longer acceptable.

Student grades and interest in those classes plummeted, Gezaw said.

“They made sure we knew they didn’t like it,” she said. “They would just not do it. They would put their heads down; they would sleep.”

Jeremy Story, a public relations contractor who emailed answers to Chalkbeat on behalf of the networks, said STRIVE schools continued to use their own curriculum, and there were no pacing guides last school year. He didn’t address questions about whether modifications were allowed to make lessons more culturally responsive.

As a Black educator, Gezaw said she’d been attracted by STRIVE’s focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but grew disillusioned as the emphasis shifted to test scores and uniformity. She quit in April.

Some former Rocky Mountain Prep employees say this approach is typical of the network’s philosophy, even with the youngest children, and they’re dismayed to see it spread.

Ellarie Anderson said when she learned of the merger, she thought, “Wow, we really don’t need more schools becoming like Rocky Mountain Prep.”

Anderson spent two years at Rocky Mountain Prep, starting a year before Noyola’s arrival. Throughout that time, she said her students, kindergartners and third graders, were expected to sit up straight at their desks, with their hands folded and eyes following the teacher. She said when supervisors observed, they’d count the number of students who met those standards. Those children were considered “engaged.”

Rocky Mountain Prep officials denied that students are expected to sit this way, with Story writing, “Absolutely not.”

Anderson also said she was expected to follow rigid lesson plans prescribed by the network.

“You’d show up every day and read your script to the kids, and if the kids got it or didn’t, it didn’t matter. You just moved on the next day,” she said.

Story said Rocky Mountain Prep schools do use scripted curriculum, but that teachers can make adjustments based on the needs and best interests of students.

Annie Nelson, a former fifth grade teacher at Rocky Mountain Prep who left a year ago, said as state tests approached during the 2021-22 school year, she was asked to put more focus on students who were on the cusp of reaching proficiency at the expense of students who were far behind.

An English teacher at one of STRIVE’s high schools described a change this year that required math and English teachers to drop their regular lessons starting in February to focus on SAT prep until the tests in April.

“It’s been SAT all day every day for kids, which has not been great,” the teacher said in late March. More kids were missing classes and their behavior was getting worse, he said.

But Adam Lenzmeier, the vice president of schools for STRIVE, sees test prep in a different light. “The best thing we can do for kids is to position them to go into those assessments with the confidence they deserve,” he said.

Asked about whether there is a growing emphasis on test prep and test scores, Noyola wrote that test scores are “only one way we measure success,” and that other measures include state ratings, student attendance, and whether students and teachers return each year.

STRIVE Prep evolved to focus more on equity

The history of STRIVE Prep traces the evolution of Colorado’s charter sector. STRIVE launched in 2006 with a single school called West Denver Prep. The idea was to provide a rigorous alternative to district-run middle schools with low test scores. Gibbons promised the mostly Latino families in southwest Denver eight hours of school per day, no summers off, strict discipline, and a focus on getting their children to college.

With high test scores and a long wait list, West Denver Prep opened more schools. By the time the network changed its name to STRIVE Prep in 2012, it was growing from four schools to seven. That same year, Rocky Mountain Prep opened its first school in southeast Denver.

By 2014, test scores at STRIVE’s eight schools began to fall. Gibbons pointed to high teacher turnover, curriculum changes, and too many innovations at once. Around that time, STRIVE began accepting a larger share of students with disabilities than in the past, part of the network’s “equity agenda.”

Josue Bonilla, left, gets a high five from special education teacher Wendi Sussman at STRIVE Prep–Federal in 2016.

In many ways, it signaled a shift away from the network’s “no excuses” style origins and a commitment to serving all students.

Bisha, STRIVE Prep’s director of continuous improvement who oversaw a grant related to special education, worries that Gibbons’ legacy is “being destroyed” through the relentless push for better test scores and the state’s top green rating.

“Is that the be-all end-all that gives kids equitable access after high school?” she said. “No, it’s not.”

Some current and former STRIVE employees worry the merger will rob the schools of STRIVE’s unique traits, including its focus on antiracism, its commitment to serving students with disabilities, and its robust college and career readiness programming.

A current STRIVE employee who helps oversee college and career programs said impending staff cuts will make it impossible for the merged network to continue offering overnight college trips, extensive concurrent enrollment classes, work-based learning, and career and financial aid advising for alumni.

“College and career readiness is not a priority from this new central team,” the employee said. “Sadly, this wasn’t a merging. It was a takeover.”

Noyola acknowledged the cuts and said each high school “is now empowered” to lead its own college and career programming.

Noyola disputed that the focus on students with disabilities and antiracism is diminishing, and said the network’s commitment to both “is greater than it has ever been.”

Through the changes, Noyola has maintained the support of both boards.

Estrada, the STRIVE board member who himself attended the network’s first middle school, said it’s misleading to say the network is moving away from its commitment to antiracism.

“I think our priority as an organization and the most antiracist work we can do is giving each student a college prep education,” he said.

Who is Tricia Noyola?

Noyola grew up in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas and has often talked about being underestimated by her teachers growing up. She has described herself as opinionated and headstrong, and said she fell in love with education while working in an elementary school during college.

On the weekly podcasts Noyola records with updates for STRIVE and Rocky Mountain Prep staff, she strikes a conversational tone, discussing movies she plans to see with her husband and children and network goals like getting students to read a million words.

Noyola started her career at a large Texas-based charter network called IDEA Public Schools, which promotes a no excuses, college-for-all philosophy. Prior to her arrival in Colorado two years ago, Noyola helped IDEA grow from four to 16 schools in the Austin area.

Lenzmeier, who started as a STRIVE principal in 2020 and will manage four principals in the new network, said Noyola is uncompromising in what she believes is possible.

A former army officer, he believes that “Tricia Noyola shares a lot of similarities with the best commanders I worked with.”

But many STRIVE and Rocky Mountain Prep employees describe her as harsh and intimidating, with little tolerance for dissent. Under her leadership, staff have been fired with little or no notice, and others have been notified of impending job cuts on group Zoom calls that lasted just a few minutes, according to current and former employees.

“At my campus, staff were very afraid of her,” said one former mental health provider at Rocky Mountain Prep. “I’m very afraid of her. I do not want to be on her list or her radar.”

Noyola’s most recent performance review from the 2021-22 school year at Rocky Mountain Prep credited her with achieving three of five key goals and praised her for showing “leadership, resolve, and courage to make the necessary changes to achieve student results.” The review urged Noyola to give more attention to how changes are communicated, show more “vulnerability and humility,” and work with the board to avoid the strained relations that sometimes occurred over the previous year.

Gibbons said he hasn’t followed every change that Noyola has made, but said, “Tricia is coming into this experience with a lot of urgency, appropriately so, around raising results for kids,” he said. “I have tremendous confidence in her.”

Cryan, the founder and former CEO of Rocky Mountain Prep, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Hundreds of employees left their jobs before the merger

About half of STRIVE Prep staff and two-thirds of Rocky Mountain Prep staff — nearly 400 of 730 total employees — left their jobs between June 2022 and mid April 2023, according to numbers provided by the networks. Districts around the country are grappling with high turnover and teacher burnout, but teachers and staff interviewed by Chalkbeat say the level of turnover reflects a punitive network culture and hurts students.

Several educators told Chalkbeat the flood of departures meant that students missed out on legally required special education services, English language development instruction, or mental health support. Sometimes, students felt confused or hurt after a trusted teacher disappeared without notice.

Among the departures, which resulted from resignations, firings, and job cuts, were more than 160 teachers and 40 principals, assistant principals, deans, or principal fellows. STRIVE lost 32 high-level central staff — chiefs, directors, and managers — and Rocky Mountain Prep lost 24. The networks lost 18 mental health providers, including social workers, social emotional learning specialists, and a psychologist.

Eleven STRIVE employees, most of whom are Black or Latino and half of whom were central administrators, have left since last June with severance agreements that awarded them between one and eight months of pay but also banned them from criticizing the network. Chalkbeat obtained the agreements through a public records request. No Rocky Mountain Prep employees received severance pay or signed separation agreements during that period.

“We want teachers in our network who are behind our new mission, all of our values, and our new leadership.”

Noyola attributed some of the turnover to the so-called “Great Resignation,” a pandemic-era trend in which many employees, including teachers, left their jobs. More STRIVE administrators left because their network is undergoing bigger changes, she said. Some of the employees who left were in temporary positions, and their departures may have inflated the turnover rate, she added.

Noyola acknowledged that the networks have suffered from a shortage of special education providers but said her team aims to rectify problems immediately when they are identified. She did not address the claim that English learners have missed language development sessions.

Valdez, vice chair of the STRIVE board, said, “We knew with the change of leadership … some people were going to leave and that we were okay with that because we want teachers in our network who are behind our new mission, all of our values, and our new leadership.”

Donovan, the Rocky Mountain Prep board chair, said the board has monitored departures and that turnover is slowing.

Nelson, the former fifth grade teacher, said the network struggles with teacher retention in part because it recruits young, inexperienced teachers, provides them insufficient support, and holds them to an impossible standard.

Noyola said the network “has a number of positions whose responsibilities include directly coaching and supporting teachers. I’m confident based on our outcomes that our system is effective.”

Even as Noyola cut some employees in response to purported budget pressures, she gave generous raises and bonuses to others — a move she said was warranted by the additional work those employees are doing and the value they provide to students.

School staff protest their working conditions

Throughout fall of 2021, teachers or other staff members at Rocky Mountain Prep–Berkeley seemed to be quitting almost every week, said Meghan Mallon, a former music teacher at the school. Teachers who stayed were constantly juggling extra kids or classes to cover for departed colleagues. For students who were supposed to get daily instruction to improve their English language skills, that meant sometimes missing three or four sessions a week because their teacher was assigned elsewhere, she said.

In late January 2022, after one lead teacher was told she’d be removed from her position and reassigned elsewhere in the building, Mallon and a colleague organized a one-day sick-out in protest. About a dozen teachers participated, sending an email to Noyola and other Rocky Mountain Prep administrators with a list of the group’s concerns, including the teacher’s abrupt demotion, the missed sessions for students learning English, and the lack of coaching for teachers.

Cesar Chavez Academy, a struggling single-site charter school, was taken over and became Rocky Mountain Prep–Berkeley in 2018.

Mallon and the other main organizer were fired the day of the sick-out, and other participants were given a warning and told they couldn’t talk about it, according to a charge later filed by Mallon with National Board of Labor Relations.

A lawyer for Rocky Mountain Prep responded to the labor board’s charge with a nine-page letter arguing the case should be dismissed because charter schools don’t fall under the labor board’s jurisdiction. The labor relations board ultimately agreed and dismissed the case.

Grievances describe ‘worst’ work environment

Shortly after Mallon and the other sick-out organizer were fired, Ana de Vries, the principal of the Berkeley campus, filed a grievance against Noyola.

In response to a public records request, Rocky Mountain Prep provided a copy of the grievance that was heavily redacted to protect the privacy of minors. A less redacted copy of the complaint obtained by Chalkbeat contends Noyola used her power to “harass, intimidate, discriminate against, and coerce RMP staff.” It describes a meeting in which Noyola demanded that a teacher “admit her white privilege” as well as wrongdoing unrelated to the reason for the meeting.

De Vries, who is Latina, said in an interview she felt Noyola’s demands of the teacher were inappropriate. She filed the grievance after Noyola refused to meet with her to discuss the meeting. After she submitted the complaint, she said Noyola cut her out of all communications related to the Berkeley campus.

It “created the worst environment I’ve ever worked in,” said de Vries, who resigned in February 2022 after two and a half years with the network and 12 years in the charter sector.

Rocky Mountain Prep officials said de Vries’ grievance prompted the board to adopt a policy outlining how conflicts should be addressed in select circumstances. (Chalkbeat is not describing the circumstances to protect the privacy of children.)

In a second grievance, a Berkeley teacher named Alyssa Papiernik described a culture of fear and constant hostility between Noyola and some employees.

Papiernik closed by writing, “I dread coming to work everyday ... I am hoping next year Tricia changes her attitude towards her staff.”

The Rocky Mountain Prep board found no substance to Papiernik’s claim.

A third grievance came last November, shortly after Noyola was named CEO of STRIVE Prep and was conducting a series of town hall meetings to introduce herself to STRIVE staff. Mallory Tozier, a white assistant principal at STRIVE’s Smart Academy, described a tense exchange during the question-and-answer period in which she felt Noyola implied she had a white savior complex.

A staff member of color whose account was included in the grievance echoed Tozier’s account and said Noyola’s reaction “seemed cruel and unnecessary” and “painfully silenced people like me.”

Chalkbeat obtained Tozier’s grievance through a public records request. STRIVE Prep officials said an investigation found no wrongdoing by Noyola.

“I doubt there is a principal or CEO in [Denver Public Schools] who hasn’t had a complaint filed against them at some point,” Noyola wrote in response to questions. “Grievances reflect a single point of view, and we have a process that takes every grievance seriously.”

Rocky Mountain Prep enters a new era

When the new school year starts in August, STRIVE Prep will no longer exist, and Rocky Mountain Prep will have triple the schools it had last year.

Some current and former staff from both networks have serious misgivings. They say Rocky Mountain Prep’s “rigor and love” slogan now rings hollow.

But for Noyola and other network leaders, it’s an exciting time.

They say student achievement is increasing, and almost all families are planning to return next year. Enrollment projections provided by the network suggest K-12 student numbers will hold steady at about 4,700 even with this summer’s closure of two STRIVE schools.

“The sheer optimism is remarkable,” Rocky Mountain Prep’s Chief of Staff Indrina Kanth said in an email.

In a recent message to staff, Noyola thanked those who remain and those who have joined her for the “awe-inspiring” results produced this school year.

“I know this came at costs and sacrifices that each of us made to further the mission,” she wrote.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Sheridan teacher pay negotiations stall amid tight budgets, sinking enrollment

2023-06-22T20:00:48+00:00

Teachers in the Sheridan school district south of Denver are concerned about pay. While neighboring districts are offering double-digit percentage salary increases to their educators, Sheridan teachers have been offered just 2%.

District officials are concerned about declining enrollment, which they say is affecting district revenues. Last year alone, the district, which served 1,125 students, lost 476 students to other districts.

The teachers union sees it all as part of the same cycle: Low pay prompts teachers to leave, creating turnover and instability. Frustrated families leave the district for schools that can provide more stability. Enrollment declines, the district loses revenue, budgets get tighter, and raises require tough trade-offs.

But the two sides aren’t talking anymore. Negotiations stalled over the pay issue, and the district and the union are headed for mediation beginning July 28, a schedule that leaves teachers uncertain about their pay well into the summer.

“It’s causing me a bit of anxiety,” said Kate Biester, a high school teacher and union leader.

The stalemate over teacher pay points to a larger question for districts like Sheridan: What happens when a district that’s already small keeps shrinking?

Other Denver metro districts facing enrollment and revenue declines are closing or consolidating schools, which creates disruption but helps free up some money for the students and schools that remain.

But in Sheridan and other small districts, the limited number of schools leaves fewer options for closing buildings.

Sheridan district leaders declined to talk about the negotiations or the impact of enrollment declines on district finances. They said that there were no documents about the salary offer that they could release as public records, and that they don’t have recorded video of the negotiations. Under Colorado law, negotiations between teachers unions and school districts are public.

Biester said the teachers’ position in the negotiations was met with a lack of compassion.

“We did not feel that our story was listened to,” she said. “We were told several times to hurry up and stop being repetitive about things that are really close to home. I work 16-hour days often, and I might not be able to afford my rent next year.”

Enrollment declines are accelerating

The enrollment declines in Sheridan are real: The district had 1,125 students enrolled in the fall of 2022, down nearly 20% since 2017. The overall population of children in Sheridan has dropped as well, census data shows, but not as fast.

Arapahoe County’s birth rates have dropped since 2000 but are projected to rise in 2025.

According to district budget presentations, the district is projected to receive about $13.5 million in funding for the 2023-24 school year, up from last year. The district presentation states that last year, the district received about $12.8 million, although state calculations put last year’s revenue at closer to $13.4 million.

The district has five schools: an early childhood center, a K-2 elementary school, a middle school for grades 3-8, a high school, and an alternative secondary school.

Merging those schools hasn’t been a part of discussions, district leaders say.

“I don’t know the physical space would allow it,” said Superintendent Pat Sandos, who retired, but will return in July for a one-year transition. “It probably would cost us money to do that.”

Instead, district documents show the board had pressed the superintendent and district leaders to come up with a marketing plan to keep students from leaving the district.

Sandos, who received a 17% raise in 2021, said the district has focused on developing a training program that partners with trade unions in the area to create a path for students to work in the trades. The district has spent millions in remodeling a building for that program.

The district has offered teachers a 2% raise. The school board president said raising pay beyond that would require cutting staff.

With high turnover, students are ‘used to their teachers leaving’

Even with the threat to revenues, teachers say the district can do better. They started out wanting a 12% raise, in line with a projected increase in state per-pupil funding to districts.

By the end of negotiations this spring, they had come down to requesting a 10% increase.

Teachers say the district needs to focus on what they see as the cause of the accelerating enrollment declines: Families are tired of long-term substitutes, a decrease in program offerings, and staff turnover.

Sheridan teachers say it’s easy to make more money by moving to nearby districts that have been giving teachers larger raises.

Currently the starting salary for teachers in Sheridan is $50,991, and the average is $64,813. Both of those figures are lower than in neighboring districts. In Denver, the average salary is $66,141, and in Littleton, it’s $75,434.

In the last school year, teacher turnover in Sheridan was at almost 40% — one of the highest in the state. The number of teachers in the district has dropped from about 100 in 2017 to 75 in 2022.

“I had a kid say to me on my first day, ‘Mrs., you’re not going to be here next year. That’s just how it goes here.’” Biester said. “They’re just used to their teachers leaving.”

Teachers also say offerings for extracurricular activities and electives like music, art, and shop are being cut.

Sandos said that’s not a district decision, but said he allows principals to make program cuts to fit their budget, as they see fit.

Sharena Del Brocco, a middle school teacher who has worked in Sheridan about 10 years, said it all contributes to why students leave the district.

“Kids are getting subs, we’re not retaining high quality teachers, and people keep leaving,” Del Brocco said. “So the kids feel abandoned.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Sheridan needs a new superintendent. The process has divided the community — again.

2023-06-20T22:57:31+00:00

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The Sheridan school district has no superintendent this month — and no clear plan to open a search.

Some board members want to appoint the internal candidate recommended by the departing superintendent, Pat Sandos. That proposal has divided the board, with one member accusing the board president of trying to bribe her to go along.

Meanwhile, the board has agreed to pay Sandos his full salary for a transition year starting in July, even though he’s officially retired as of May 31. Community members have launched a petition to terminate Sandos’ extension. For too long, they say, the district has overlooked and ignored the needs of parents and students, and it’s time for new leadership.

The district on Denver’s southwest edge serves about 1,100 students, including a large percentage from low-income families or identified as homeless. Like many in the metro area, the district is struggling with declining enrollment, which means less revenue and tighter budgets. The teachers union is seeking raises similar to those neighboring districts have agreed to, but negotiations have stalled. Meanwhile, teachers and parents alike report high turnover and important positions sitting vacant.

Alejandra Balderrama, a Sheridan parent, got involved in the petition requesting the current superintendent leave sooner because she’s concerned about staff turnover, especially the sudden departure of the elementary school principal after the school was recognized for students’ exceptional academic growth.

“I really don’t find that to be fair,” Balderrama said.

She said she hopes a new leader will mean more stability among staff and better communication with parents.

“I would like constant communication between not only the teachers and principals or administration, but also with the parents,” Balderrama said. “It’s important for us to really be involved.”

Board split on how to search for a superintendent

Superintendent Pat Sandos was hired in 2018 amid pushback from community members who preferred one of the other finalists — a Hispanic educator from southwest Denver. Instead, Sandos, an internal candidate, was selected in a split vote.

At the time, board member Daniel Stange said the district needed someone from outside to listen to the community’s calls for change.

This time, Stange, now the board president, believes that there is no need to spend thousands of dollars on a superintendent search firm if there’s a good internal candidate.

“They turn out the same type of superintendent, filtering the way they do, and you get what you get,” Stange said. “If we want a different result, a new type of superintendent, then why would we be spending money to hire a search firm?”

“Our internal search is really focused on the culture of our schools,” Stange added. “We want a bilingual female. The majority of the board is supportive of an internal candidate that matches that.”

But veteran board member Sally Daigle, who voted for Sandos in 2018, feels strongly that the board needs to do a comprehensive search. The disagreement began at the same December meeting when Sandos announced his retirement.

Sandos recommended the board appoint his chief academic officer, Veronica Maes, to be his replacement. He would train her during his transition year.

Daigle advocated for the district to hire the Colorado Association of School Boards, of which she is an active member, to lead a search. The push to consider only one internal candidate concerns her.

“There’s something just not right about the whole thing,” Daigle said. “I would not argue for an hour and a half that we needed to do this if I didn’t think so.”

At a tense board meeting this spring that sometimes turned into shouting, Daigle read text messages from Stange that she later described as an effort to bribe her into agreeing with the plan using reimbursement payments as leverage. Sheridan is one of a few Colorado school districts that pays board members, allowing reimbursement for certain meetings and costs.

“I told you I would approve the costs for you to work with CASB if you didn’t give us a lot of pushback with this issue,” reads the text message from Stange, which Daigle shared with Chalkbeat. “It really feels like you are trying to push us into a costly and lengthy process? I hope you remember that we are a 5 member board. Majority rules but consensus will always provide a confident image to our constituents.”

“It was threatening, coercion, or whatever you want to call it. I was kind of pissed,” Daigle said.

Daigle serves on a CASB committee that requires monthly meetings and is a full-time caretaker for her mom. She wants to get compensated when she does work that requires her to make other care arrangements for her mom.

Stange said it wasn’t meant as a bribe or coercion, but said he knows that “to some people it might sound like that.”

Stange said he was upset that Daigle was “making a fuss” about the superintendent search and said there was disagreement over whether Daigle’s CASB conference work should count as school board work.

According to a records request, as of May 21, only two board members have received any payment since the policy took effect. Daigle received $1,725, and Maria Delgado-Garcia received $1,093.

Sheridan schools, including the alternative high school SOAR Academy, seen here in August 2020, offered in-person learning through most of the pandemic.

Internal candidate says her passion is in working to close equity gaps

Maes, who joined Sheridan as chief academic officer last year, said she wants to be superintendent to keep working on important projects.

“My entire life, my passion is closing equity gaps, working with multilingual learners — that is my why,” Maes said. “I was a Spanish-only speaking child, and I did not go through a great sink-or-swim experience. When I moved over to Sheridan last school year, it really was filling my bucket.”

“When Pat announced he was going to retire, it concerned me for the work,” she said. “We are getting a lot of traction.”

Stange said he’s happy to hire Maes into the top district role — lauding her approach to equity and the fact that she’s a Hispanic woman.

Maes has agreed not to request a higher salary during the transition year so that the small district will pay only one superintendent salary — to Sandos. Sandos, meanwhile, said he considers himself to still be the superintendent.

Daigle said a broader search would ensure the district finds the best candidate. And if that is Maes, she will still stand out even more, Daigle said.

The board could vote to appoint Maes as soon as this month. That’s when the board expects a report on community feedback on the district’s goals and direction, based on a survey and some meetings. If Maes agrees with the community priorities, it makes sense to appoint her, Stange said.

Daigle is frustrated because the district has paid a pair of consultants $12,000, twice what CASB would have charged to conduct a superintendent search that included community engagement. Stange said the consultant contracts include work on a strategic plan, and the community feedback also will support that work.

While parents agree with the board president that representation matters in a leader, some worry that any internal candidate, Hispanic or not, might continue to ignore their requests.

Alexis Marquez, a leader of the advocacy group Sheridan Rising, said that last year, Sheridan parents presented a list of requests to the district — including that the district provide Spanish interpreters for school board meetings so more parents could participate.

“It wasn’t a hard ask, but this letter went completely ignored. It was never even acknowledged,” Marquez said. “This is just a blatant disregard for the community. If you can’t speak the language, you can’t partake.”

Sandos said he would like to add interpreters to school board meetings but logistics and cost have been a challenge. Other school districts with large numbers of Spanish-speaking families, such as Adams 14, have offered interpretation for years.

Maes said she wasn’t aware of the letter or the request. She has ensured that schools offer interpreters for meetings with parents, she said. It wasn’t something she had considered for school board meetings.

Maes said better communication with the community would be a top priority if she’s chosen as superintendent, along with recruitment of new students and teachers.

“I just want to do the work,” she said. “This kind of stuff gets in the way of that.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Takeaways from Jeffco K-8 and middle school enrollment and choice numbers, ahead of school closures

2023-05-17T22:07:26+00:00

Jeffco school leaders have said identifying middle schools to close will be more complicated than it was with elementary schools.

That’s a daunting challenge for a district that voted to close 16 elementary schools last fall.

Leaders plan to recommend to the school board in August which schools to close, and to redraw some attendance boundaries and redesignate feeder schools in summer 2024.

A look at enrollment, school spending, campus utilization levels, and family poverty gives a glance at some of the data that may inform Jeffco’s decisions.

The district’s work has been spurred by years of declining enrollment. Even though the number of residents in Jeffco increased over two decades, the population of school-age children decreased by 29,918 from 2000 to 2020. Fewer children are being born. According to the district, 2020 marked the lowest number of births recorded in 15 years.

The district has not yet identified the criteria to determine which middle and K-8 schools to close or consolidate. In one exception, district leaders have told the Arvada K-8 school community that if it earns a low state rating this fall, triggering possible state action, the district will recommend closure. The school is the only one that is nearing state action for low performance.

The district describes its work as data driven, and has published some school data that it may consider in deciding on closures.

With elementary schools last year, the district identified for closure or consolidation schools that had fewer than 220 students, or were occupying less than 45% of the capacity of their building, and had another elementary school within 3.5 miles that could absorb displaced students.

Compared with elementary schools, Jeffco’s 22 district-managed middle and K-8 school facilities tend to be in better condition, and have a narrower range of enrollment and utilization. Some regions, or articulation areas as the district calls them, have only one middle school fed by all the elementary schools, further complicating closures.

Here are some takeaways about middle schools in Jeffco:

Most middle schools are losing more students than they attract through school choice.

Of 22 neighborhood middle schools and K-8 schools in Jeffco, 18 are losing more students through the choice process than they attract, and only four schools gain students through that process. Colorado law and Jeffco’s system allow families to send their children to any school in the district or to transfer to schools in other districts that will accept them.

Of those 18, four schools lose more students than remain enrolled. Carmody Middle School, for example, had 892 students choose to attend different schools, according to district data, leaving only 626 students at the school.

A similar out-migration of students was one of the factors the district cited in emergency school closures including one two years ago.

About a third of these district schools are projected to have fewer than 500 students next year.

Nearly all of the Jeffco-managed middle schools and K-8 schools are projected to lose students. According to district figures, seven middle or K-8 neighborhood schools will have fewer than 500 students next school year, and three of those schools are already occupying less than 50% of the capacity of their school building.

Those three schools are: Coal Creek Canyon K-8, Moore Middle School, and North Arvada Middle School.

Coal Creek Canyon K-8 is projected to have 91 students next fall. The school currently serves 100 students.

Moore Middle School is already being considered for consolidation. The school’s principal partnered with the principal of Pomona High School in asking the district to approve a plan to consolidate the schools and turn Pomona into a sixth grade through 12th grade school instead. The school district is expecting estimates of the cost of required building upgrades, before taking a vote this summer.

At the other end of the range, one Jeffco middle school is over capacity. Three Creeks K-8 in Arvada enrolls 1,112 students. About 8% of the students there qualify for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty, much lower than the district average. This school is the only one currently projected to have significant student enrollment growth next year.

Schools with lower utilization are more likely to have more students living in poverty.

Among the seven middle and K-8 schools in Jeffco that occupy less than 60% of their building’s total capacity, the schools average nearly 50% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, a measure of poverty.

The district’s overall average for all middle and K-8 schools is 36%.

The five schools that occupy more than 80% of their building average 25% of their students as qualifying for subsidized lunches.

Also, schools that have faster enrollment declines are more likely to have more students living in poverty. For example, among 10 schools with projected enrollment declines of more than 5%, an average of almost 42% of students qualify for subsidized meals, compared with about a 32% average at schools that have a small decline or that are projected to be growing.

The K-8 schools on average spend more than middle schools per student.

Since schools are funded based on the number of students enrolled, schools with fewer students end up with smaller budgets and aren’t able to provide as many resources or learning opportunities as schools with more students.

Among the middle schools and K-8 schools that the district is considering closing or consolidating, K-8 schools on average spend more than middle schools per student. One school, Coal Creek Canyon K-8, which is serving about 100 students, is spending $21,994 per student, more than 28% over the average per student cost at the district’s other K-8 schools.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco considers middle school closures as it moves to next phase of consolidations

2023-05-09T21:38:48+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

Jeffco Public Schools is laying out a roadmap for the next phase of school closures and consolidation in anticipation of fewer students enrolling next year and for several years to come.

Recommendations for middle school closures could come as soon as August under a resolution the school board is expected to approve this week. The resolution would put a moratorium on any high school closures while the district works on other plans around the future of high school.

Jeffco is planning to take a more comprehensive look over the next year at enrollment patterns, school boundaries, and feeder zones, as it considers which schools to close and where to consolidate. The resolution also lays out unsustainable enrollment as a factor for middle school closures, as well as one new factor: the accountability clock.

Being on the state’s accountability clock — the name for when schools have recorded low state ratings for many years in a row — could lead to a school closure. The state gives schools limited time to improve academic performance before it steps in and can order a plan for improvement, which can include turning a school into a charter school or closing it.

Until now, academic performance has not been part of the school closure conversation in Jeffco.

In Jeffco, Arvada K-8 is the only school close to reaching the end of the clock. The school had reached its fourth year of consecutive low ratings before the pandemic caused the state to pause testing and ratings. In the most recent rating, Arvada K-8 improved, but the school needs two years in a row of improved ratings to be off the clock.

If the next rating this fall is again low, that would be treated as the fifth year of low ratings and trigger state action. But often hearings are held in the spring after ratings are finalized and after the state has a chance to send in an independent panel of experts to evaluate the school and make a recommendation on next steps.

The district has already told the school that if the ratings this fall don’t improve, the district will ask the state to close the school, moving up the decision from the spring of 2024 to this fall.

Lisa Relou, Jeffco’s chief of strategy and communications who is overseeing the plan, said waiting for the State Board to take action in the spring would be too late for families trying to make decisions about where to send their children to school the next year and for staff who need to find other jobs.

“So, we’re not going to take our chances,” Relou said.

And while the school could earn a higher rating based on state tests from this spring, Relou said Arvada K-8 also has low enrollment and a complicated feeder pattern, which are also factors that may end up putting the school on a closure list anyway.

Arvada K-8 has a capacity for 920 students, but only has 554 students this school year, about the same as last year. The school, which is expected to continue to see declining enrollment in the coming years, is also listed as having a 62% choice out rate, meaning many more students in the school boundary leave to attend other schools, compared to the average rate of 42% at other schools.

Schools with low academic performance won’t automatically be considered for closure, Relou said, only those that are near the end of the accountability clock.

District expects to consolidate resources and improve school budgets

The pandemic has accelerated previously declining enrollment in Jeffco, as in other metro area districts in the state and other large districts across the country. In November, the school board voted to approve a plan to close 16 elementary schools at the end of the school year.

The enrollment declines have been most stark in elementary schools where lower birth rates have contributed to smaller kindergarten classes. As those classes move up, the lower student counts will reach secondary schools as well.

By closing schools, the district expects to save money and be able to consolidate resources in fewer schools. But as the district also works on smoothing out the transition for families displaced by the closures, it is spending more than $32 million in one-time expenditures to update buildings that will receive displaced students. School board members were initially shocked by those price tags, which were presented after the closure vote.

At the middle school level, Relou said the public can expect fewer school closures than there were at the elementary level.

“With elementaries, there were so many, and so many close together, but when you look at middle schools, it gets more complicated,” Relou said.

One school consolidation plan under consideration was developed by school principals. They are proposing that Pomona High School be turned into a school serving sixth through 12th grade and that Moore Middle School’s building be closed, with the students moving into the space at Pomona. Principals say they believe consolidating their resources and aligning the experience of students from middle grades into high school can allow for better outcomes.

The plan requires some building upgrades to allow for separate entrances for younger students and for older students, and to accommodate a part of the building to be a wing specifically for the sixth and seventh graders. A cost estimate of those changes is expected next month, ahead of a board vote on the plan June 22. The changes would take effect for the 2024-25 school year.

The district also is emphasizing collaboration with municipalities in the county. In November, some of the opposition against the elementary school closures came from city council members who felt that their plans for developing communities hadn’t been considered. This time, the board resolution directs the district to work with municipalities.

Relou said the governments and the school district need to be on the same page as they plan for the future of the communities and look at how more children in the area might be attracted to stay in Jeffco schools.

At the same time, as the district is looking at which criteria it will ultimately use to pick which schools to close, it has also commissioned a study of the school boundaries and feeder patterns in the district.

Relou has told the school board some of the feeder patterns are unusual. For instance, some K-8 schools have neighboring elementary schools that feed into their middle school or sometimes into seventh grade, creating a disproportion among grade level sizes. Some regions have multiple middle schools while others have only one.

The boundary study may also result in recommendations that could change the patterns of where students go from elementary to middle and high school. Sometimes, district leaders said, students don’t follow the district’s feeder patterns, and instead use the school choice process to go to other schools. The boundary study will try to make out whether other patterns make more sense.

At the high school level, the district is working on the “High School Reimagined” initiative, which includes work funded by state grants that aims to create partnerships between industry, higher ed, and school districts to increase the offerings of career and technical opportunities. Before the district considers school closures at that level, leaders want time to consider how extra space in high schools might be used toward those new learning opportunities.

Correction: May 10, 2023: This story has been updated to reflect that Moore Middle School would close and consolidate with Pomona High School under one proposal. An earlier version referred to Moore as an elementary school.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board considering 600-student limit at larger elementary schools

2023-04-11T03:25:01+00:00

Amid ongoing enrollment decline, the Denver school board is considering capping the size of elementary schools at 600 students and requiring the superintendent to “analyze and adjust” school attendance boundaries at least every four years.

The proposed policy would also direct the superintendent to avoid creating attendance boundaries “that socioeconomically segregate schools” by creating inequities in funding, resources, programs, electives, or parent fundraising.

And it would direct the superintendent to ensure students can safely walk to school. Given the shortage of bus drivers, the proposed policy says schools should be close enough to students “to minimize the need for district-provided transportation.”

The board was set to discuss the proposal for the first time Monday. But at the end of a long meeting, it voted to postpone the discussion to a future meeting.

Four Denver elementary schools have more than 600 students this year in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to state enrollment data: Westerly Creek (680 students), Park Hill (676 students), Green Valley (660 students), and Maxwell (631 students). All are in northeast Denver.

While Denver students are guaranteed a seat at the school in whose attendance boundary they live, the school choice system allows them to enroll in any school that has room.

Capping enrollment at popular elementary schools could bolster enrollment at smaller schools that have been losing students. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said Monday that he plans to add enrollment caps for middle and high schools to the proposal as well.

The proposal comes on the heels of a heated two-year process to close under-enrolled schools. After many starts and stops, the school board voted on March 9 to close three small schools at the end of this school year: Fairview Elementary, Math and Science Leadership Academy, and Denver Discovery School.

Board members are also considering a new policy on school closure, which they refer to as “consolidation or unification.” It says Superintendent Alex Marrero should “take reasonable steps” to not use standardized test scores or school ratings as a condition for closure.

The policy also says Marrero should avoid consolidating elementary schools that are farther than two miles away from each other. And it says he should avoid using enrollment minimums, such as 215 students or fewer, “as bright line criteria for consolidation.” A community committee recommended last year that Denver close schools with 215 or fewer students.

The policy references declining kindergarten enrollment and says “a stigma now exists for ‘small schools,’ which can accelerate the school’s enrollment decline.”

It’s not clear when the school board will vote on either policy. The board calls the policies executive limitations because they provide guardrails for the superintendent.

District enrollment projections showed Denver Discovery School would have had just 62 students next year, Math and Science Leadership Academy would have had 104, and Fairview Elementary would have had 118. All three had been publicly named as at risk for closure before families made their school choices for the next school year.

Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff. That often means the schools have fewer electives like art and music, and must combine students from multiple grades in the same classroom.

Even as the board wants to avoid setting minimum enrollment floors, the proposed enrollment policy says the superintendent must “maintain financially sustainable enrollment for elementary schools.” The policy defines that as having approximately either:

300 students with two classes of 25 students per grade,
450 students with three classes of 25 students per grade, or
600 students with four classes of 25 students per grade.

“Enrollment shall not exceed 600 students for elementary schools,” the proposed policy says.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Neighborhoods like Green Valley Ranch in northeast Denver are growing even as families move out of neighborhoods in other parts of the city. That has led to uneven enrollment patterns at district schools.

American Indian Academy of Denver charter school to close at the end of the school year

2023-03-20T21:04:19+00:00

A Denver charter school focused on serving Indigenous students will close at the end of the school year, according to a resolution passed by its board of directors.

The American Indian Academy of Denver, or AIAD, opened in the fall of 2020 with sixth, seventh, and eighth grades and a plan to build a high school one grade at a time.

Its founders hoped that a curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering, art, and math, coupled with lessons taught through an Indigenous lens, would be transformational in a school district where just 50% of Native American students graduated on time last year.

But three years later, AIAD is closing its doors. A resolution passed by the charter school’s board cites “significantly lower than expected enrollment of students, significantly lower than expected revenue, and significantly higher than expected costs.” The resolution also cites “challenges caused by the school being opened at the start of [the] COVID-19 pandemic.”

AIAD officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The Denver school board is set to vote Thursday on the surrender of AIAD’s charter. The vote is largely a formality. If the school board votes yes, AIAD will join two other charter middle schools that are closing at the end of the school year: STRIVE Prep - Lake and STRIVE Prep - Kepner.

A district-run middle school, Denver Discovery School, is also set to close at the end of the school year, bringing the total number of Denver middle school closures to four.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining. So is the number of independent charter schools, which are funded per pupil. AIAD will be the 14th Denver charter to close in four years.

In November, after DPS officials said they were considering the rare step of revoking AIAD’s charter, AIAD students and parents pleaded with the school board to keep their school open. At the time, AIAD had 134 students in grades six through 10. In its original charter application, AIAD had predicted it would eventually have 400 students in grades six through 12.

District officials never recommended revocation. Instead, the AIAD board “determined that, after exploring all potential alternatives and finding no viable options, it is their obligation and duty to close the charter school after the current academic year,” the AIAD resolution says.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board votes to close three small schools one day after recommendation made public

2023-03-09T19:37:17+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free Colorado newsletter to keep up with education news from Denver and around the state.

The Denver school board voted Thursday to close two elementary schools — Fairview Elementary and Math and Science Leadership Academy — and a middle school, Denver Discovery School, at the end of this school year due to declining enrollment.

Some board members grew emotional during the vote. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said he was voting “with a heavy heart.” Board member Scott Esserman called the closure of Denver Discovery School “an institutional failure.”

Several board members cried after the first of the three votes. The district’s attorney passed out tissues that they used to dab their eyes. President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán called a break.

Board member Carrie Olson said she struggled to prepare remarks for Thursday’s meeting “because it’s so hard to talk about a school closing.”

“These are really tough decisions and none of us are taking them lightly,” Olson said.

The vote was taken one day after Superintendent Alex Marrero’s formal recommendation was made public in a slide deck posted online. The board was meeting in an all-day retreat. While retreats are open to the public, typically the board does not vote at these meetings.

Marrero said school staff urged him to bring the recommendation to the board sooner than the board’s regular voting meeting on March 23.

Fairview students will be guaranteed enrollment and transportation to Cheltenham Elementary, less than 1½ miles away. Fairview staff will be guaranteed a job at Cheltenham. The two schools already share an executive principal who oversees both, Marrero said.

The Denver Housing Authority pushed back on the closure of Fairview, arguing that affordable housing set to be finished soon in the Sun Valley neighborhood could mean hundreds more students. But Liz Mendez, executive director of enrollment and campus planning for DPS, said the district’s projections are lower.

All of the board votes were unanimous except for the vote to close Fairview. Anderson voted no. Marrero said the district could reopen and “reimagine” Fairview if the number of elementary-aged children in the neighborhood grows.

Only one parent from the closing schools was in the audience when the board voted. Najah Abu Serryeh, whose younger daughter is a first grader at Fairview, wiped away tears.

“It’s so unfair,” she said afterward. “Fairview is not just a school for us. It’s like a community.”

Fairview parent Dominic Diaz was watching the meeting virtually.

“I’m picking my daughter up in an hour and 20 minutes and I’m thinking about how I’m going to share this news with her, or even if I want to,” said Diaz, whose daughter is in preschool.

Denver City Council President Jamie Torres also criticized the decision in a letter she sent to the board and shared on Twitter. She said the district had caught the school in “its most severe state of transition” and that families who soon would be moving into the neighborhood had not been considered.

Math and Science Leadership Academy students will be automatically enrolled at Valverde Elementary right next door, but Marrero pledged the district would contact each family to ask if that’s what they want. Families could still choose other schools.

MSLA staff will be guaranteed a job at Valverde. Marrero said Valverde is eager to incorporate some of the math and science curriculum from MSLA next year.

Students at Denver Discovery School, which is one of several schools in a big boundary area that the district calls an enrollment zone, will not be automatically enrolled at another middle school. Rather, the district will help DDS families secure their children a spot at another middle school of their choice. The district also will help DDS staff find another job.

The three schools have what Marrero calls “critically low enrollment.” District projections show DDS will have just 62 students next year, MSLA will have 104, and Fairview will have 118.

“The system cannot continue to function in this way,” Marrero told the school board. “That’s a hard reality. Something needs to happen.”

The district funds its schools per student. Schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff, which often leads to combined classrooms and fewer electives like art and music.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, with the sharpest drops at the elementary level. DPS reports having 6,485 fewer elementary students than it did in 2014 and projects it will lose another 3,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade over the next five years.

The school board rejected a previous recommendation from Marrero in November to close DDS and MSLA. He had originally recommended closing 10 schools, including Fairview, but revised his recommendation after fierce pushback from the community and school board.

Board members on Thursday praised the way the district engaged with staff, families, and community members at Fairview, MSLA, and DDS. They said it differed sharply from the community engagement DPS did with the 10 schools this fall, which they found lacking.

Correction: This story has been updated to correctly spell the last name of parent Najah Abu Serryeh.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent expected to recommend closing 3 small schools

2023-03-08T19:49:28+00:00

Three small Denver schools could close at the end of this school year if the school board follows a recommendation that Superintendent Alex Marrero is expected to present Thursday.

Two elementary schools — Fairview Elementary and Math and Science Leadership Academy — and a middle school, Denver Discovery School, would close, according to the recommendation, which was posted in the agenda for a Thursday school board retreat.

Fairview students would be guaranteed enrollment and transportation to Cheltenham Elementary, less than 1½ miles away. Fairview staff would be guaranteed a job at Cheltenham.

Math and Science Leadership Academy students would be guaranteed enrollment at Valverde Elementary right next door. MSLA staff would be guaranteed a job at Valverde.

Denver Discovery School students would not get a guaranteed spot at another middle school. Rather, the district would help families secure their children a spot at a middle school of their choice. The district also would help DDS staff find another job in the district.

A slide presentation containing the recommendation doesn’t say when the school board is expected to vote. But Marrero previously said it could be as early as this month. The board’s next voting meeting is scheduled for March 23.

Marrero is recommending the three schools for closure due to what he calls “critically low enrollment.” District projections show that DDS will have just 62 students next year, MSLA will have 104, and Fairview will have 118, according to Marrero’s recommendation.

The Denver Housing Authority pushed back on a previous recommendation to close Fairview, arguing that subsidized housing set to be finished soon in the Sun Valley neighborhood could mean hundreds more students for the school. The potential for reopening Fairview if enrollment goes up was noted in the slide presentation. The idea came up at a meeting between the Fairview community and district staff, the presentation says.

The district funds its schools per student. Schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff, which often leads to combined classrooms and fewer electives like art and music.

School closures are a controversial solution. The school board rejected a previous recommendation from Marrero in November to close DDS and MSLA, the two smallest schools. Marrero had originally recommended closing 10 schools, including Fairview, but revised his recommendation after fierce pushback from students, parents, teachers, and the school board.

Marrero first floated the recommendation to close Fairview, MSLA, and DDS at a school board meeting late last month. He promised to approach the process differently than in the fall by meeting with the affected communities before making a formal recommendation to the board. Several board members criticized him for a lack of community engagement last time.

Those meetings appear to have happened quickly. The slide presentation says four options were discussed in meetings with parents and teachers at Fairview, MSLA, and DDS.

The options were: keep the school as is, begin closing it by not enrolling new students in the lowest grades, close the school at the end of the year and send students and staff to a nearby school all together, and close the school at the end of the year but give students priority to choose any other school they’d like to attend.

Marrero is expected to recommend the last two options.

“Staff and families asked for DPS to make a decision quickly, stating that waiting ‘leaves us in a bind as we need to plan for next year,’” the slide presentation of staff and families at DDS.

Twelve other Denver schools with what Marrero calls “concerning enrollment” — meaning fewer than 215 students — could be closed at the end of next school year, the slide presentation says.

They are: Ashley Elementary, Beach Court Elementary, Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, Colfax Elementary, Columbian Elementary, Eagleton Elementary, Hallett Academy, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Kaiser Elementary, Palmer Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, and Whittier K-8. Projected enrollment ranges from 131 students excluding preschoolers at IAD at Harrington to 209 students at Cole Arts and Sciences Academy.

But the slide presentation notes that these 12 schools have other options, including staying open, revising their boundaries or feeder patterns, not enrolling students in the lowest grades to slowly phase out the school, or other ideas generated by the community.

A detailed timeline calls for an external facilitator to meet with the 12 school communities in April and May to discuss enrollment trends and school budget forecasts and develop a list that includes both district- and community-generated options for addressing low enrollment.

The viability of the options would be assessed in June and July, looking at cost estimates, the impact on surrounding schools, programming needs, and other factors, the presentation says.

The district would gather community input on the options it deems viable in August. The superintendent would make a recommendation to the school board in September, and the board would vote in October. Any changes for the 12 schools would go into effect in the 2024-25 school year.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board wants better communication with parents as district weighs school closure

2023-02-24T05:14:23+00:00

Denver school board members said Thursday night that they expect better communication with parents and educators as district officials consider next steps — including possible closure — for 15 schools with low enrollment.

At the same time, board members who previously voted against school closures said they now believe some schools have such low enrollment that the situation is unsustainable.

Superintendent Alex Marrero presented an update on enrollment and possible steps toward closure at Thursday’s board meeting. He identified three schools with especially low enrollment that could close as soon as the end of the school year: Denver Discovery School, Math and Science Leadership Academy, and Fairview Elementary.

Marrero emphasized that he has not yet made a formal recommendation to close those schools or any others, and that he’s open to new ideas from the community. He said he is approaching the process differently than he did in the fall, when he made a recommendation to close 10 small schools and then directed school leaders to hold community meetings to hear from affected families.

The board rejected a narrowed down version of that recommendation in November, saying the process was rushed and didn’t give families enough of a chance to weigh in.

This time, Marrero is proposing meeting with the affected school communities before making a recommendation — a change that school board members said they appreciated.

“Yes, these three schools can be recommended for closure, and these 12 schools can be recommended for closure next year, but that’s not what I’m bringing forward today,” Marrero said in an interview after the board meeting Thursday night. “I want everybody to be prepared that that could be the case, but we’re also looking for creative solutions.”

Marrero said the process could move quickly for the three schools with “critically low enrollment.” He said district staff could begin engaging with families and teachers at Denver Discovery School, MSLA, and Fairview Elementary immediately, and he could bring a formal recommendation to the board next month.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who was sharply critical of the school closure recommendation process this fall, said he feels differently now about the three smallest schools.

“I believe that we are at a point with the three schools that we need to take action immediately,” Anderson said. “I’m seeing a number of 62 kids at a middle school and it’s not feasible. And I think we have to have some tough decisions.”

Denver Discovery School is projected to have just 62 students next year, while MSLA is projected to have 104 excluding preschoolers. Fairview Elementary is projected to have 118. Denver schools are funded per student, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff.

Anderson acknowledged that families may have avoided schools previously flagged for closure in the just-closed school choice window, leading to even lower enrollment at those schools.

“I do wonder if some parents were scared off from enrolling their kids because they saw these schools on a list before,” he said, referring to Marrero’s previous recommendations.

The process would move more slowly for 12 schools Marrero identified as having “concerning enrollment,” meaning they are projected to have fewer than 215 students next year.

A proposed timeline calls for district staff to meet with the 12 school communities from March to August, and for Marrero to present a formal recommendation to the school board in September. Any closures or other changes, which the proposal says could include revising school boundaries or co-locating one small school with another, wouldn’t happen until fall 2024.

The 12 schools are Ashley Elementary, Beach Court Elementary, Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, Colfax Elementary, Columbian Elementary, Eagleton Elementary, Hallett Academy, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Kaiser Elementary, Palmer Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, and Whittier K-8. Projected enrollment ranges from 131 students excluding preschoolers at IAD at Harrington to 209 students at Cole Arts and Sciences Academy.

Board members offered suggestions Thursday for what they’d like the meetings with the school communities to look like. Anderson said Marrero should lead the meetings himself.

Families should be assured their children will get priority to enroll at other schools if their school closes, Anderson said, and staff should be assured they’ll get other jobs in the district. He also suggested the meetings be held both in-person and virtually so more families could participate.

Board member Carrie Olson said one of the most uncomfortable parts of the meetings this fall was when parents would ask questions that principals didn’t know the answer to. She requested that “people who can answer questions” be in the room at all community meetings.

“Clear communication with answers at meetings is going to be vital and imperative,” she said.

The board is considering a new policy that directs the superintendent on how to approach school closures. It acknowledges that district enrollment is declining and says the board “believes it is necessary to consolidate and unify schools to maintain the financial viability of the district and to maximize the resources, staff, and programs offered to students.”

Consolidation and unification are how Denver officials describe school closures.

The policy outlines a long list of information that the district should provide to families and educators at schools recommended for closure, including the “positive implications of proceeding” and the “negative implications of not proceeding.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school closures back on the table with new recommendations from superintendent

2023-02-23T17:01:23+00:00

Three months after the Denver school board rejected a previous recommendation to close under-enrolled schools, Superintendent Alex Marrero is trying again. He’s expected to present a new recommendation Thursday night to address declining enrollment at 15 small schools.

The recommendation could result in the closure of three schools with very low enrollment — Denver Discovery School, Math and Science Leadership Academy, and Fairview Elementary — as soon as the end of this school year if the school board agrees next month, according to a slide presentation attached to Thursday’s agenda.

Options for the other schools on the list include phasing out by not enrolling new students in the lowest grades or revising school boundaries. Marrero’s recommendation also leaves room for options generated by the community, which board members said was missing last time. Most of the 15 schools on the new list were part of Marrero’s previous closure recommendation.

Denver Public Schools isn’t the only metro area district dealing with declining enrollment due to lower birth rates and higher housing costs. Neighboring Jeffco Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools each voted last year to close schools with low enrollment. The Douglas County School District is starting to plan for school closures in 2026.

The three Denver schools with what Marrero calls “critically low enrollment” have the fewest options. Denver Discovery School, a middle school, is projected to have just 62 students next year; Math and Science Leadership Academy, an elementary school, is projected to have 104 students excluding preschoolers; and Fairview Elementary is projected to have 118 students.

The Denver Housing Authority pushed back on a previous recommendation to close Fairview, arguing that redevelopment would bring more school-age children to the neighborhood.

For those three schools, Marrero is recommending either closing them at the end of the school year, phasing out grades over several years starting with kindergarten or sixth grade next year, or other options generated by the community.

A proposed timeline calls for Marrero to meet with the school communities to discuss options in March and present a recommendation for a school board vote later in the month. The district would then help families and staff with transitions before next school year.

Twelve other schools with what Marrero calls “concerning enrollment” have more options, including staying open while the district subsidizes their budget, moving so they share a building with another school, or revising their boundaries or feeder patterns.

The 12 schools, their projected 2023-24 enrollment excluding preschoolers, and the district subsidy they’d need next year, according to a district presentation, are:

International Academy of Denver at Harrington, 131 students, $519,708 in subsidies.
Columbian Elementary, 141 students, $537,838 in subsidies.
Schmitt Elementary, 142 students, $531,651 in subsidies.
Hallett Academy, 171 students, $1,049,172 in subsidies.
Palmer Elementary, 175 students, $352,626 in subsidies.
Kaiser Elementary, 175 students, $360,053 in subsidies.
Whittier K-8 School, 186 students, $300,932 in subsidies.
Colfax Elementary, 192 students, $247,447 in subsidies.
Eagleton Elementary, 194 students, $211,134 in subsidies.
Ashley Elementary, 198 students, $105,179 in subsidies.
Beach Court Elementary, 201 students, need $86,618 in subsidies.
Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, 209 students, $37,122 in subsidies.

A proposed timeline for the 12 schools includes more lead time before a decision. It calls for Marrero and an outside facilitator to discuss options with the school communities from March to August. Marrero would present a recommendation to the school board in September. Any closures or other changes wouldn’t happen until fall 2024.

In rejecting a whittled down set of school closure recommendations in November on a 6-1 vote, a majority of school board members said the process was rushed and didn’t include enough time for families and teachers from the affected schools to give feedback.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

9,000 children don’t show up in Colorado school data. Are they missing or in private school?

2023-02-11T00:25:12+00:00

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Kindergarten enrollment is down. Dropout rates are up. Public school enrollment still hasn’t rebounded to where it was in 2019, before COVID turned education upside down.

Where have the kids gone? A new analysis by The Associated Press and Stanford University’s Big Local News project found an estimated 230,000 students in 21 states absent from publicly available data on public and private school enrollment and home schooling. That tally includes as many as 9,000 uncounted in Colorado, or about 1% of the state’s school-age children.

The uncounted likely include students learning in private school and at their kitchen tables who simply haven’t been reported, along with children who aren’t in school at all.

The findings further illustrate the pandemic’s profound impact on education, with some families rethinking their options and other students struggling to stay connected. They also demonstrate the difficulty of getting a full picture of where students have landed as a result of the upheaval.

States like Colorado where kindergarten is voluntary have many more unaccounted-for children than states where kindergarten is required, the analysis found. Birth rates have declined, meaning there are fewer 5-year-olds than even a few years ago, and thousands of families have moved out of state. But those changes don’t fully account for the decline in kindergarten enrollment.

More families could be keeping their 5-year-olds home even as Colorado prepares to launch a major expansion of public preschool.

“That’s important because kindergarten is the first experience kids have with a formal learning environment, and readiness to learn is really important as they move onto older grades,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford University education professor who worked on the analysis.

At the other end of their school careers, more Colorado students are dropping out, state data shows, with 10,500 middle and high school students leaving the system in 2021-22, a 23% increase from 2019-20 and the highest dropout rate in four years.

Chronic absenteeism is up too, said Johann Liljengren, the state education department’s director of dropout prevention and student re-engagement.

“We definitely are seeing higher levels of disengagement across various measures, from attendance to dropouts,” Liljengren said. “What we’re trying to do is dig in and find out why and can we see some of those kids come back?”

The analysis used enrollment and U.S. Census data to look at changes from 2019-20 to 2021-22 and doesn’t include the current school year.

State data shows home school declining from its peak in 2020, and private school enrollment is nearly flat, raising questions about where other students who left the public system may have gone. But state education officials acknowledge their data on both student populations is “loose.”

Private schools don’t have to report enrollment, and more than 30% of 700 non-public schools in a state database report no information, potentially accounting for thousands of students. Home-school families are supposed to notify a school district every year of their intentions, but not all do.

Van Schoales, senior policy director at the Keystone Policy Center, said the gap is a symptom of Colorado’s lax approach to data collection. Without better information, it’s hard to know what’s happening or what to do about it, he said.

“We don’t know what the problem is,” Schoales said. “Is the problem that younger parents entering the school system during COVID had bad experiences and don’t trust the system? Or is the problem that high schools abandoned kids who were on the brink? Or maybe parents are making different choices.”

Kindergarten slide raises concerns

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis made improving early childhood education a centerpiece of his administration. He made full-day kindergarten free to parents in 2019 and enrollment surged, only to plummet the following year when many school districts started the year remotely.

Kindergarten enrollment rebounded somewhat in 2021-22 school year that was included in the Associated Press/Big Local News analysis — only to drop again this school year. But even in 2021-22, the share of 5-year-olds who weren’t in kindergarten was higher than before the pandemic. (Demographers caution that population estimates are imprecise.)

In 2019-20, fewer than 2% of Colorado 5-year-olds weren’t in public or private kindergarten. In 2021-22, roughly 4% were not enrolled.

The decline in participation is a concern, said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign. But without more information, it’s hard to know if vulnerable children are missing out on key early learning opportunities or if families with more resources are “red-shirting” or holding back their kindergarten-eligible children or enrolling them in private options, she said.

Complicating the kindergarten trends, enrollment in both preschool and first grade are up this year. The launch of universal preschool in August could bring thousands more children into the public school system with part-time free care.

Who’s not in school?

State data gives some insight into how public school enrollment is changing. The largest decrease is among white students. There are 30,000 fewer of them in Colorado public schools this year than in 2019-20. The largest percentage decrease is in Native American students.

Dropout rates increased among all student groups but increased most among Hispanic and Native American students. Hispanic students accounted for more than half of all Colorado students who left school last year without graduating. Some school districts have stepped up efforts to find and bring back students who left school to work or who just didn’t see the point.

Attendance advocates in the Greeley-Evans district go door to door in search of students who are missing school.

Liljengren said state education officials are also revamping how they do their work — bringing together sections that once worked in isolation to better use data to identify students in trouble and to support high schools in revamping their programming to keep students engaged, including with more pathways tied to career options.

But enrollment isn’t down everywhere. Alan Smiley, who heads the Association of Colorado Independent Schools, said the 39 schools his association accredits have seen enrollment grow between 1% and 3% a year since 2019, including families who have moved to Colorado as well as those switching from public school.

Families are attracted to small class sizes, specialized programming, and school environments that reflect their values, he said. Many start in preschool with the intention of remaining in one school for years. His members watch demographic trends just as other school officials do but haven’t seen the declines public schools report.

Regardless of the choices families make, public school enrollment is not expected to rebound anytime soon. There are 79,000 18-year-olds in Colorado, but just 67,000 5-year-olds, according to U.S. Census data provided by state demographer Elizabeth Garner.

Colorado home-school trends are hard to track

Joanna Rosa-Saenz was among more than 15,000 Colorado families who reported home schooling in the 2020-21 school year. She started out running a learning pod from her Denver home and continued after schools opened. She worried about vaccine mandates and wanted to be more hands-on with her children’s education, especially after her middle son fell behind when his school didn’t address his special education needs.

Her children are back in Denver Public Schools this school year. As a single parent, she couldn’t educate her children and support them financially and get more than a few hours sleep a night, she said. And she couldn’t afford tuition at the private Christian schools that most appealed to her.

The state’s official count of home-school students has gone down each of the past two years — perhaps reflecting parents like Rosa-Saenz who could not sustain it — but Stephen Craig, executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado, said his membership is holding steady after a notable increase in 2020.

Rosa-Saenz said she knows many home-schooling families that are still going strong. Some didn’t like what their kids were being taught or the political direction of their district. Others were frustrated by high teacher turnover and frequent leadership changes. Still others felt a public school education just wasn’t very good.

“Parents have a lack of trust and so they are pulling their kids out and seeing what they can do to really support them,” she said.

Public school approaches on everything from math instruction to gender have alienated conservative parents, Craig said. Families want an education tailored to their child and their faith.

“For too long we’ve put education in its own box and said 2 plus 2 is 4 and that’s not religious,” he said. “And that’s just not true. Our world view is in everything.”

Tracking these students is tricky. Some families may not report. The Christian home educators group advises families they are not legally required to report if their children are being taught by a parent who is a licensed teacher — an interpretation of the state’s compulsory attendance law supported by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. State education officials told Chalkbeat they interpret the home-school statute to mean such families should still notify a school district.

Colorado’s public school enrollment data also includes thousands of home-school students who take a class or receive a service from a local public school. That means the real number of home-school students is higher and the real number of public school students lower than publicly available data suggests.

Fall 2020 saw hundreds of thousands of Colorado students learning at home. Some of them stayed there.

Enrollment declines are cause for concern

Regardless of the exact number, missing students and disengaged families demand attention, observers said. Schools connect students not just with education but also with meals, medical care, and community. Schools with fewer students also get less money. Many Denver metro area districts have closed schools or plan to.

Polling data that the conservative education group Ready Colorado expects to release this month shows a big increase in parents concerned that schools are on the wrong track. That aligns with a Magellan Strategies poll from last spring — though the reasons for dissatisfaction were diverse.

Ready Colorado President Brenda Dickhoner said she knows more families who thought private school was out of reach but re-examined their options as they grew less satisfied with their local public school.

“I’m less concerned with whether Joey is in private or public school, but I’m really interested in understanding the parent motivations,” she said.

Colwell of the Children’s Campaign said she worries that more families may be opting out — even though the vast majority of Colorado families continue to enroll in public school.

“We want kids to be connected to high-quality learning opportunities,” she said. “For families to make the choice that they’ll disengage entirely, to see an increasing number of families making that choice in the wake of the pandemic and the political environment, is concerning.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

State enrollment data shows fewer students in Colorado schools

2023-01-18T19:39:08+00:00

The number of Colorado public school students dropped this school year — for the second time in the last three years.

The first drop was in the fall of 2020, just after the pandemic had started. Last school year, enrollment seemed to recover slightly, though it remained below pre-pandemic levels. This fall, student enrollment again decreased to near 2020 levels, with a total of 883,264 students in preschool through 12th grade.

Previously, student enrollment had increased for about three decades, according to a state press release.

The Colorado Department of Education published enrollment data Wednesday morning from the fall’s official student counts.

According to the state, the largest declines this time were in kindergarten and middle school grades.

Year-over-year kindergarten enrollment declined in October 2022 by 2,373 students, or by 3.8%. The number of full-day kindergarten students in 2022 was 58,371, compared with 61,989 in 2019 before the pandemic. Preschool enrollment did go up in 2022 and is closer to its pre-pandemic levels.

Based on racial and ethnic breakdowns, white students had the largest change in raw numbers with a 7,673-student decline. Based on a percentage change, American Indian and Alaska natives had the largest decrease with 4.7% fewer students than in fall 2021.

Schools enrolled more students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure of poverty, last fall compared with the fall of 2021, though the number is still lower than in 2019. But with lower overall statewide enrollment, the percentage of students living in poverty out of all students was roughly the same last fall, 39.9%, as it was in 2019.

Families had to fill out forms this school year to qualify for free lunch. During the past two years, because of federal waivers, all students could eat school meals for free.

Among individual districts, a similar pattern emerged where most had proportions of students qualifying for subsidized lunches going up from last year, but not quite reaching 2019 levels.

However, a handful of districts had more students last fall qualifying for subsidized meals than they did in 2019. The proportion grew, for example, in District 49 to 34% from 32% pre-pandemic; in Jeffco schools to 32.3% from 31%; and in Adams 12 schools to 45.2% from 39%.

The number of students identified as English language learners held steady from the past year, though it still represents a big decrease from students identified pre-pandemic.

The overall enrollment decrease includes fewer students home-schooled and fewer students in online schools. A total of 8,674 students were counted as home-schooled in October, down from 10,502 in fall 2021. This year’s home-schooled count now nears the 7,880 enrolled in 2019.

In online schools, the state counted 30,799 students enrolled this year — 583 fewer than in 2021. Colorado only has limited data on private school enrollment.

Enrollment dropped in more than half of the school districts in the state.

In the metro area, that included the Mapleton School District, which until this year had held steady or grown while other districts lost students. The decrease was driven by its large online school Colorado Connections Academy moving to another district. In the metro area, the second largest percentage decrease in enrollment was in the Adams 14 school district, which counted 5,692 students, down from 6,114 last fall, and from more than 7,000 students in 2018.

While Adams 14 enrollment has steadily decreased over the years, the state’s orders last May to reorganize the district may have steepened the decline. It was the first time the state exercised its authority to order a reorganization, which could end in closure of schools or neighboring districts taking control of parts of the district.

School districts receive funding based on the number of students they enroll, so a decline in the number of students can also mean a drop in funding. Several school districts, including Denver, have been considering school closures. Jeffco voted to close 16 elementary schools at the end of this school year.

The Aurora school district, on the other hand, reported an increase in enrollment. Because of new housing development in its eastern sector, officials there had already expected their student counts to start increasing soon, but were unsure when it would happen.

Despite that expectation, Aurora officials have said it wouldn’t resolve the district’s enrollment and facilities issues. Uneven housing patterns have prompted school closures closer to the Denver boundary, while also requiring the district to construct new buildings near developments to the east.

Charter schools authorized under the state’s Charter School Institute grew enrollment slightly. Statewide, all charter schools enrolled about 2,500 more students than they did a year earlier, a 1.8% increase.

The state also recorded more students in state detention centers.

Other areas showing growth include Greeley-Evans District 6 and School District 27J based in Brighton, both north of Denver, District 49 in Colorado Springs, and rural parts of the state.

Look up enrollment changes at your district in the table below:

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver officials recommend closing STRIVE Prep - Kepner charter school for low test scores

2023-01-06T02:51:59+00:00

A Denver charter middle school could close at the end of this school year if the school board follows a recommendation to shutter STRIVE Prep - Kepner for low test scores.

Superintendent Alex Marrero is recommending the board take the rare step of not renewing STRIVE Prep - Kepner’s charter. A memo notes the school, which opened seven years ago, earned the lowest state rating last year, signified by the color red.

Kepner students scored in the first percentile on state math and reading tests last spring, the memo says, which means 99% of Colorado students did better.

School closures are controversial. In 2018, the Denver school board began backing away from a previous policy of closing schools with low test scores. No district school has been closed for low performance since then.

In November, board members rejected a recommendation to close several district-run elementary schools with low enrollment. But board members didn’t offer much pushback Thursday on the recommendation to close STRIVE Prep - Kepner, with a few even saying they agreed with it. The board is set to vote Jan. 12.

Vice President Auon’tai Anderson was the sole member to express reservations.

“I’m struggling with the Kepner decision because the optics would look as if we are closing the school versus a school acknowledging, ‘We have not met the mark and we are going to surrender’” our charter voluntarily, Anderson said.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner has 178 students this year, according to network spokesperson Julia Virnstein. District data shows 91% of its students last year were Hispanic and 86% qualified for subsidized school meals, an indicator of low family income.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner opened in 2016 after the district decided to close district-run Kepner Middle School for low test scores. The hope was that STRIVE Prep - Kepner and another school that opened at the same time, Kepner Beacon, would better serve students.

In a letter to families last month, STRIVE Prep acknowledged its shortcomings.

“STRIVE Prep asked for the opportunity to operate Kepner to better deliver for kids and families, and despite our best efforts, we did not live up to our promises,” the letter says.

Charter schools are publicly funded but independently run by their own boards of directors. The Denver school board authorizes charters to open and votes to renew their contracts periodically. A vote against renewing a school’s contract is a vote to close the school.

Charter surrenders are more common than closures. The school board hasn’t voted to close a charter in at least a decade, officials said. In 2011, the board voted to close Life Skills Center, a high school that served students who’d struggled elsewhere. In the years since, another 13 Denver charters closed voluntarily, often because of low enrollment.

With 10 schools, STRIVE Prep is Denver’s second-largest charter network. It is currently in the process of merging with another homegrown charter network, Rocky Mountain Prep, after the departure of its founder last year.

STRIVE announced in October that another of its schools, 188-student STRIVE Prep - Lake, will voluntarily close this spring. Denver schools are funded per student, and STRIVE said the Lake closure is to ensure “students have access to well-resourced schools.”

Marrero is recommending that the board renew the contracts of 19 other charter schools for periods ranging from one to five years. The length of a renewal recommendation is based on a school’s academic performance and other factors.

Denver has a total of 56 charter schools this year.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco proposes $32 million in building upgrades to accommodate students from closing schools

2022-12-16T23:40:51+00:00

Jeffco Public Schools is beginning work on up to $32 million of projects to prepare buildings to receive as many as 2,600 displaced students from 16 schools closing.

The more than a dozen projects planned include renovating buildings to accommodate preschoolers and students with disabilities or adding more space for the increase in students.

The price tag is equivalent to about 2 1/2 years of savings from closing the under-enrolled elementary schools at the end of the school year. Most of the work is expected to be completed this summer.

Last week, school board members expressed shock at hearing the $32 million price tag, and Thursday decided they might downsize some of the larger projects once they have more accurate enrollment projections for the next school year.

The district assured the school board that it expects to be able to cover the cost of those projects with $12 million the board had already agreed to set aside from bond money for such work, and with the savings of about $17 million in bond projects that will no longer happen at schools that are closing. The district also expects the projects to likely come in under the estimated $32 million, which includes conservative contingency costs.

District leaders told the board that the project costs are onetime expenditures, and that the district will still see ongoing savings from closing those 16 schools.

“The consolidation decisions that this board had the courage to make are ongoing and cumulative savings that we will be able to eventually, once we get things settled with the budget, apply to our kids’ extraordinary experiences,” superintendent Tracy Dorland told the board at last week’s board meeting.

The district expects to save $12 million in operating expenses every year after those 16 schools close.

“This decision pays for itself and then some,” chief financial officer Brenna Copeland said.

The school board Thursday night considered pausing some of the work due to the cost and uncertainty about the need, but decided that it didn’t want to risk not having enough space for students when school starts next fall.

Instead, it approved contracts to begin the first project: an addition at Prospect Valley, which is receiving new students from Kullerstrand, including a special needs program. The board plans to revisit the scope of the contract early next year, when it has enrollment numbers from the first round of choice applications.

Currently, Prospect Valley is slated to get an addition that includes eight new classrooms, including two classrooms designed for the affective needs program. The addition is expected to increase the building capacity to 650 students, but currently the district projects the school will enroll around 560 students next year.

If the projection is correct, the current building’s capacity might already be enough, though district leaders cautioned that letting a school reach near full capacity limits how effectively principals can manage class sizes, especially when the number of students isn’t distributed evenly per grade level.

Still, some board members weren’t convinced the school needs eight new classrooms.

“Why are we even going that high right now for 650?” said board member Danielle Varda.

Board members also questioned how the district might examine costs to renovate receiving schools when it considers recommendations to close secondary schools next year. At the secondary level, the district has almost finished the planned projects.

Copeland said that although the district has limited funds, officials already have some ideas where it might get the money for retrofitting secondary schools after possible closures. By then, the district might have started selling or leasing some of the empty elementary buildings, making some capital funds available. The district also could use leftover unallocated bond dollars.

District leaders say they don’t yet know what factors they might consider when deciding which secondary schools to close.

With elementary schools, the district closed schools that had fewer than 220 students or were using less than 45% of their building’s capacity, as long as there was another elementary school within 3.5 miles that could absorb the students. Costs of renovations weren’t calculated until after the 16 schools were identified.

The district doesn’t yet know what enrollment or capacity thresholds it would set to close secondary schools, or if it would use different factors. Leaders said it was too early to say if building renovation costs could play into the decision.

But Copeland said the district is not interested in making the decisions primarily about money. District leaders have said that the problem with small schools is that education suffers when teachers have to be responsible for students of multiple grade levels within one classroom, when teachers can’t collaborate with colleagues who teach the same grade level, and when schools can’t offer after-school programs and other enrichment.

“Very consistently, parents told us ‘My student is not a number; please don’t make these decisions based on that,’” Copeland said. “I very much don’t want the financial calculation to be a primary driver.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora school board and superintendent had ‘different visions’ for the district

2022-12-09T01:06:50+00:00

Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn and the school board have “different visions” for the future of the district.

That’s all either side would say about the decision to end a nine-year relationship. The board voted 4-3 this week not to extend Munn’s contract, which expires at the end of the school year.

Of the four who voted in favor, only Nichelle Ortiz commented before her vote, saying the district needed change and healing.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Munn said he’s proud of the equity lens he brought to improving education in the diverse district and hopes that key programs — such as a partnership with CSU Global that expanded college access — continue.

Munn said he would have been interested in staying — if certain conditions were met. He had asked board members to begin considering the direction they wanted to take over the summer, ahead of the February deadline to inform him of whether they planned to renew his contract.

“In my contract there’s pretty clear language around governance structure and how that works,” Munn said. “And ultimately it would be good to be aligned in vision with the board. What’s become clear is we have a conflict in our vision.”

Board President Debbie Gerkin echoed that sentiment.

“The board and Rico have different visions for the future,” she said, declining to go further.

Gerkin and board members Michael Carter and Anne Keke voted against the transition agreement and would have preferred to extend Munn’s contract. Board members Stephanie Mason, Vicki Reinhard, Tramaine Duncan and Ortiz voted not to renew Munn’s contract.

Now that the decision has been made, Gerkin said, the board is focused on doing a thorough search with the help of the community for the next superintendent.

The board is meeting in a closed-door session Sunday morning to receive legal guidance about how to kick-off the search. Munn wrote a transition plan approved by the board in which he steps back at the end of December, but still helps the district through the end of the school year. He will then continue in a consulting role to help onboard the new superintendent next fall.

Before he steps back at the end of this month, Munn said two of his priorities are to leave the district with a clear strategy for advocacy at the legislature and to start the budget-drafting process in January.

Although neither Munn nor school board members elaborated on what puts their visions at odds, tensions have been evident in public meetings in recent years.

The governance stipulations in Munn’s contract require the school board to use a policy governance model to oversee him. Policy governance calls for the board to stay out of day-to-day decisions. Instead, the superintendent handles daily operations, and the board sets goals and restrictions for the superintendent to follow as he carries out his work.

In recent years the board modified the model to take back more control over certain issues. And they’ve struggled with keeping discussions focused on evaluating the superintendent’s work toward their goals. They’ve also changed goals multiple times.

Munn’s contract also requires that he receive an evaluation every year, but that hasn’t happened. This year, the school board decided not to evaluate Munn because the pandemic had caused disruptions, meaning they had limited data, and the most recent goals were set less than a year ago.

Munn wrote a two-page memo in objection.

“I utilize your direction for how I set goals and evaluate the overall performance of the district,” he wrote. “Despite the clear challenges of the year we were able to conduct formal evaluations for every other employee of APS. The board’s decision to not perform my evaluation hinders the effectiveness of the system by not providing new direction or standing by its prior direction.”

Munn went on to write that if the board went with the evaluation tool they adopted in February 2021, which accounts for limited data and allows for alternative approaches, his performance would earn a “satisfactory” evaluation.

He noted that he sought guidance from the board to clarify expectations in early 2022, but that the board was unable to reach any conclusions after several meetings.

Most recently, some board members expressed frustration about Munn’s recommendation to close two small elementary schools as part of the district’s long term facilities plan, Blueprint APS. A divided board initially rejected the recommendation, but Munn brought it back unchanged. Several board members struggled with that, but a majority approved it.

Munn said he was unable to change the recommendations without the board changing the criteria he should use to consider which schools should close.

Now, the future of Blueprint, policy governance, and other district projects are open questions. Gerkin said board members have not discussed those issues. Other than Gerkin, board members did not respond to interview requests from Chalkbeat.

Monica Colbert, a former school board member who wanted Munn to stay, said she hopes the district will keep moving forward with the work he started.

“It is a transition,” Colbert said. “This has to be viewed as an opportunity for growth — not wiping the slate clean and starting over.”

The district has made significant progress in academics, Colbert said. “We don’t want to lose that momentum.”

Kayla Armstrong-Romero, another former board member who was often at odds with Munn, said that during the pandemic she came to see Munn’s leadership abilities and is now sad his contract isn’t being renewed.

“Throughout the pandemic his leadership was amazing,” Armstrong-Romero said. “Hands down, he led Aurora in such a collaborative, impeccable manner that I would have voted to renew his contract based on his performance.”

Linnea Reed-Ellis, the president of the Aurora teachers union, said she hopes the school board will look for a superintendent who values all voices.

“It’s making sure all voices in the community are included,” Reed-Ellis said. “Valuing the professionals in the schools who work daily with students and considering their voice in each decision-making.”

The teachers union in the past has had a strained relationship with Munn. Reed-Ellis did not want to speak Thursday about Munn’s performance or the board’s decision.

Colbert and Armstrong-Romero both spoke to Munn’s ability to build relationships as a key asset that the school board should consider as they search for the next district leader.

“We have to be a school district that talks about kids more than it does about adults,” Colbert said. “That’s one of the most laudable things about Rico. He was willing to take the arrows and face the backlash for recommendations or decisions that had to be implemented. That politically agnostic superintendent is really important in a district like Aurora.”

Even though current board president Gerkin said she would have liked to see Munn’s contract extended, she also believes the district will find someone to carry on important work.

“I have every confidence as we move forward, we’re going to find the next great superintendent for APS,” Gerkin said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board’s inaction on school closures cheered, jeered

2022-11-19T00:48:44+00:00

To some, the Denver school board’s decision not to close any schools next year is a victory for the students, parents, and teachers who pleaded to save their schools and a rebuke of a process they said was top-down and rushed.

“The ‘no’ vote demonstrated the will of the community,” said Milo Marquez, a Denver Public Schools parent and co-chair of the Latino Education Coalition.

To others, the board’s action — or rather, inaction — is bad for students who will now remain in under-enrolled schools and amounts to kicking the can down the road.

“By not taking any action, I think they’ve put off the inevitable,” said Rosemary Rodriguez, a former board member and co-chair of EDUCATE Denver.

Either way, the decision marks the next stage of the journey rather than the end of a road that has been full of starts and stops and twists and turns.

First, a prior board acknowledged that declining enrollment is a problem and tasked the superintendent with consolidating small schools. The district released a list of 19 schools, but community groups reacted with concern and Superintendent Alex Marrero scrapped it.

Switching tactics, he formed a community committee to come up with criteria for which schools to close. He applied that criteria — schools with 215 students or fewer — last month and released a new list of 10 schools to close. After pushback, he narrowed his recommendation last week to five. He narrowed it again Thursday to two.

But the school board said no. In a 6-1 vote Thursday, they rejected Marrero’s whittled-down recommendation. They also revoked the prior board’s directive, sending Marrero back to the drawing board on addressing declining enrollment, which they all agree is a problem.

The superintendent said hard decisions are coming

In an interview Friday, Marrero said the ‘no’ vote doesn’t make the problem go away. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and he said some will still be too small to afford robust programming. The district will have to keep subsidizing them, which will eat at its budget. On Thursday, Marrero said the district is facing a $23.5 million deficit for next year.

“Will we go bankrupt next year? No,” Marrero said in Friday’s interview. “But anybody who has their eye on the prize is going to say, ‘That did not make financial sense.’ It doesn’t make educational sense, either.”

Marrero said as far as he is concerned, there are still 10 schools on a list. And it’s likely that he’ll soon come back to the board with a recommendation to close the two smallest of those schools — 115-student Math and Science Leadership Academy and 93-student Denver Discovery School — because they won’t have the budget to operate anymore.

“The reality is, at several points in the near future, we’re all going to have to make unpopular decisions,” Marrero said. “Voting no is easy to do. It’s a very popular thing to do.

“But sometimes we have to make decisions that are unpopular, misunderstood, or taken out of context in certain cases, and that comes with the territory.”

Marrero rejected an accusation made by at least one board member that he whittled down his recommendations in order to get a majority of the board to agree, though he said he assumed closing fewer schools “would be an easier thing to digest.”

“Under all likelihood, if it passed, I would have said, ‘We got two. Here come the next three.’”

Board and community criticize the process

In voting no, several board members criticized the process the superintendent used to arrive at his recommendations while at the same time praising him as the right person for the job.

Community members also criticized the process, saying the district did a poor job explaining to families the financial and educational reasons for the proposed closures.

“It doesn’t appear as if they understand what the problem is and why they’re doing this in the first place,” said Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Center.

In contrast, neighboring Jeffco Public Schools shared extensive information about each of its under-enrolled schools over the summer, then released a recommended closure list in August. Board members voted unanimously last week to close 16 elementary schools, overriding the pleas of some parents and teachers.

In Aurora, where the district has engaged in a multiyear process to close schools in regions with declining enrollment while planning for growth in other areas, the school board did vote down two recommended closures, only to approve them a few months later. Superintendent Rico Munn simply returned with the same recommendation, saying nothing had changed.

The Denver board’s main complaint was that the closure recommendations came from Marrero and not from the community. Marrero disagreed; he said community members from across Denver came up with the closure criteria. But board members said parents and teachers from the 10 under-enrolled schools should have been the ones brainstorming solutions.

“Today we have shown through our values that we don’t close schools without community leading us through this process,” Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said after Thursday’s vote.

Board pledges to give more direction

Several members said the board shares part of the blame. Scott Baldermann said he and others should have given clearer direction to Marrero on how to apply the school closure criteria — and, more broadly, on how to address declining enrollment — by adopting what the board calls “executive limitations,” which are policies that tell Marrero what is off limits.

In doing that, Baldermann said, “we can determine the following: Do we need to consolidate schools at all? Is the community content with smaller enrollment and fewer resources? I don’t believe the answer is yes. But we need to ask.”

Aside from closing schools, Baldermann floated other ways to address under-enrolled schools, including adjusting school boundaries and no longer funding schools per student.

Denver Board President Xóchitl Gaytán stops Vice President Auon’tai M. Anderson from continuing with his comments during a tense moment of debate Thursday.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said the district’s embrace of school choice, which allows students to apply to attend any school in Denver, has hurt district-run schools that lose students to independent charter schools with bigger marketing budgets.

“We all, as a board, need to look at, in terms of policy, how to protect our families and our students that are in these public elementary schools,” she said Thursday.

The ‘no’ vote creates uncertainty

Now that they’ve rejected Marrero’s recommendation, board members need to take the lead on what happens next, community members said.

“The board is going to have to, fairly quickly, set up a framework by which they’re going to ask the administration to act,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody is looking at DPS with concern right now.”

The next steps for the board, Gaytán said in an interview Friday, are to pass new executive limitations on declining enrollment and decide whether to pull money from the district’s budget reserves to fund the 10 under-enrolled schools for now.

“Right now, we’ve got this BAND-AID and the wound is bleeding,” Gaytán said. “We need to rip the BAND-AID off and get the surgeon to put in stitches to start the healing.”

Regardless of whether community members agree with the board’s ‘no’ vote or not, they said it has created uncertainty — not just for the 10 small schools that have been threatened with closure, but for every school in the district that could one day be in that position.

“You go from 10 schools being uncertain to now every school in DPS has to wonder how the superintendent and board is going to move forward on this and if it’s going to affect them,” said Clarence Burton, Jr., the CEO of Denver Families for Public Schools.

“That uncertainty is now spread throughout the district.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board votes down school closures, restarts declining enrollment conversation

2022-11-18T03:48:03+00:00

Denver Public Schools will not close any schools next spring, after the board rejected a last-minute recommendation from Superintendent Alex Marrero to shutter two small schools.

At the Thursday meeting, Marrero apparently surprised even some board members by dropping three other schools that he had recommended be closed.

The Denver school board had been set to vote on the closure of five small schools that receive budget subsidies. Marrero instead recommended closing only the two smallest schools: Denver Discovery School and Math and Science Leadership Academy.

Board members voted down even that recommendation and revoked a resolution adopted in June 2021 that directed the superintendent to address declining enrollment and that kicked off the process of finding criteria to close schools.

Board members said the process was rushed and did not involve enough opportunity for families and teachers to weigh in.

“If we vote yes to close the schools in this manner, we are saying we don’t respect you,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said. “If we vote no to close the schools in this manner, we are saying we respect you enough to have an honest conversation with you and come up with a plan.”

The decision sends Marrero back to the drawing board but doesn’t mean school closures are off the table in the future. Board members said gentrification, declining birth rates, and limited state funding mean the problem isn’t going away.

“I’m not going to paint a pretty picture that no school will ever close from now on,” board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said. “The budget is showing us there are a lot of constraints. And we need to make sure this district will continue to be responsible with the funding.”

The vote against closing Denver Discovery School and Math and Science Leadership Academy was 6-1, with board member Scott Baldermann casting the only yes vote.

Denver Board of Education member Auon’tai M. Anderson, right, said he felt “blindsided” by the new recommendations and the process has not respected families.

DDS is a middle school with just 93 students this year. MSLA is an elementary school with 115 students. Denver funds its schools per pupil, and schools with fewer students have less money to pay for staff and programming.

But a majority of board members objected to the process the district used to come up with the school closure recommendations because it didn’t directly involve the students, families, and teachers from the affected schools.

Instead, Marrero applied criteria suggested by a community committee that the district should close schools with 215 students or less. Marrero’s first recommendation, which he announced three weeks ago, was to close 10 schools that met the criteria.

Last week, after hearing pushback from parents and board members, Marrero slashed his recommendation in half from 10 schools to five. And on Thursday, he cut it again to two, sparing Fairview Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, and International Academy of Denver at Harrington.

“After listening to feedback from the community, I’m going to shift,” Marrero said.

The last-minute change upset some board members.

“I feel like we’re playing politics with a bunch of kids and their education and I’ve had enough of it,” board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said. “I’m pissed, to be totally frank with you.”

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero initially recommended the closure of 10 schools, then five schools, then two. Ultimately the board voted not to close any schools.

Other board members spoke passionately about the need to restart the entire process and include the community from the beginning.

“We’re going to engage in those dialogues and conversations,” Scott Esserman said, “and we’re not going to promise them we’re not going to close their school.

“But we’re also going to ask them for alternatives.”

Board member Carrie Olson called school closures “the most difficult task that any board or superintendent will undertake” and noted that “they rarely go well.” But she said “we cannot do it without the community.”

On Monday, families and educators packed a public comment session to plead with the board not to close their schools. It was the only opportunity for the community to address the full board before Thursday’s vote. Each person was allotted three minutes to speak, and the session stretched for six hours. Many speakers were from the schools Marrero spared.

No one from MSLA or DDS spoke on Monday.

Declining enrollment is affecting several metro districts, including Aurora and Jeffco. A week ago, the Jeffco school board unanimously voted to close 16 small elementary schools.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver parents, students, teachers plead with the board not to close schools

2022-11-15T04:35:20+00:00

Liam Suranowitz, a second grader with two missing front teeth, told the Denver school board Monday that he’s scared they’ll close his school.

“I really like my school and I want to keep it open because it’s like family to us,” Liam said, swinging a small sneaker-clad foot as he spoke. ”I feel loved and safe.”

Liam was one of more than 150 students, parents, teachers, and principals who signed up to address the school board in an hours-long public comment session. Many pleaded with the board not to close their schools and to find another solution to declining enrollment.

Liam Suranowitz, 7, a second grader at Columbian Elementary School, shows his hand written letter to the Denver school board.

Maricela Delarosa said her daughter, a student at International Academy of Denver at Harrington, asked her to give the board a message.

“She told me, ‘Please tell them I don’t want them to close the school,” Delarosa said.

A third grader talked about being so sad that he couldn’t go to his kung fu class. A teacher told a story about a student asking her that if he found gold on their field trip to the mountains, would it help save their school? Parents talked about how, in addition to academics, the schools provide their children with warm coats and holiday gifts.

“My kids, they started crying,” said Najah Abu Serryeh, whose children go to Fairview Elementary. “Fairview for them, it’s not just a school. It’s like their second home.”

Denver school board members — four of whom have been through school closures themselves as students, teachers, and parents — listened through hours of testimony but betrayed little emotion.

The board is set to vote Thursday on whether to close five schools: Fairview Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Math and Science Leadership Academy, and Denver Discovery School, which is the only middle school on the list. The students from those schools would be reassigned to others nearby.

Each of the five schools has fewer than 150 students this year excluding preschoolers, according to district data. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to pay for teachers and other staff, which sometimes leads schools to cut programs or combine two grades into a single classroom.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has said providing all 90,000 students in Denver Public Schools with a well-rounded education would be “almost impossible” without closing some of the district’s smallest schools.

The list of five schools is a trimmed-down version of Marrero’s original recommendation to close 10 schools. Marrero revised his recommendation last Thursday after three of the seven board members said they would vote no, and families at the 10 schools voiced opposition at meetings held at each school and a forum hosted by two board members.

Monday’s public comment was the first and only opportunity for families, students, and community members to give feedback to the full board in the three weeks between when Marrero announced his original recommendation and the scheduled vote.

The speakers included students, parents, and educators from the five schools recommended for closure, as well as the five schools that Marrero cut from the list: Columbian Elementary, Colfax Elementary, Palmer Elementary, Eagleton Elementary, and Whittier ECE-8.

“While Palmer is no longer slated to be closed,” said Mark Broner, a parent of students at that school, “I don’t trust that it’s going to remain that way for long.”

More than 150 people signed up to speak about the Denver school board’s pending school closure decision.

Parents also asked the board to rescind a 2021 board resolution directing the superintendent to review under-enrolled schools and come up with options for closing some schools. Three board members have requested that rescinding the resolution be put on Thursday’s agenda.

Nine of the 10 schools originally recommended for closure — including the five still on the chopping block — primarily serve Black and Latino students from low-income families.

“You are throwing all the minority kids into one island to pile up and see who sinks and who swims,” said Darcy Cornish, whose children are the third generation in her family to go to Columbian. “This is the fight that Black and brown kids have been fighting for centuries.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that public comment took place on Monday. An earlier version listed the incorrect date. It has also been updated to correctly spell the last name of Najah Abu Serryeh.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

5 Denver schools removed from closure recommendation — for now

2022-11-11T03:07:51+00:00

Five Denver schools recommended for closure could get a temporary reprieve.

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero announced late Thursday that he was changing his recommendation. Out of 10 schools initially recommended for closure, five are still a high priority to close because they get the largest budget subsidies, he said in a press release.

The five schools Marrero is prioritizing for potential closure are:

Denver Discovery School

Schmitt Elementary

Fairview Elementary

International Academy of Denver at Harrington

Math and Science Leadership Academy

Another five schools are still under consideration, Marrero said, but the district will continue to support them financially while “we more closely engage with their respective communities.”

Those five schools are:

Colfax Elementary

Columbian Elementary

Palmer Elementary

Eagleton Elementary

Whittier ECE-8

The school board is set to vote on Marrero’s recommendation on Nov. 17.

“As a Denver resident, I understand the importance and value of neighborhood schools. I know many of our families have roots at schools that span generations,” Marrero said in a press release. “But I, as the superintendent of DPS, and our board of education have a fiduciary responsibility to all Denver residents.

“I take this responsibility seriously, and I want you to know I am committed to doing what is necessary to, as our strategic roadmap states, ensure Every Learner Thrives — today, tomorrow and for generations to come.”

The announcement comes on the same day that the school board in the neighboring Jeffco school district voted unanimously to close 16 elementary schools. Most metro area school districts are dealing with declining enrollment, but they’re handling the school closure process differently.

In Denver, three school board members said publicly or in interviews with Chalkbeat that they planned to vote against Marrero’s plan to close 10 schools. Three others said they were undecided, and one declined to answer.

Families at the 10 schools were also mobilizing against the recommendation, speaking out at meetings and press conferences, and circulating petitions to save their schools.

The Latino Education Coalition, a group of parents and community members, released a statement this week asking the district to impose a one-year moratorium on school closures because it said the process has been flawed. The coalition also questioned the district’s enrollment numbers at two of the 10 schools, arguing they were higher than the threshold set for closure.

Nine of the 10 schools originally recommended for closure primarily serve Black and Latino students and those from low-income families. All five of the schools that Marrero is prioritizing do. At each of the five schools, 8% or fewer of the students last year were white.

The five schools Marrero is prioritizing are the five smallest of the original 10. A letter to the community Marrero released Thursday lists the enrollments at each of the schools and how much money the district is spending to subsidize them this year.

Denver schools are funded per student, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford staff. That sometimes leads to schools cutting art or music, combining two grade levels into one classroom, or losing bilingual programming. Denver subsidizes schools with fewer than 215 students. That’s also the cutoff Marrero used to make his closure recommendation.

The enrollments and subsidies were listed as:

Denver Discovery School: 93 students, $1,036,140 in subsidies

MSLA: 115 students, $511,230 in subsidies

Fairview: 128 students, $590,684 in subsidies

IAD at Harrington: 139 students, $568,852 in subsidies

Schmitt: 148 students, $683,024 in subsidies

According to the letter, the district could fund the yearly salaries of 34 teachers with the money it is spending to subsidize the five schools.

“As the superintendent of Denver Public Schools, it is my duty to ensure all students have access to robust academic offerings while the district remains fiscally responsible to Denver taxpayers,” Marrero wrote in the letter. “We’re not making this recommendation because we want to. We are doing so because we have to.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco board votes unanimously to close 16 elementary schools

2022-11-11T02:36:21+00:00

The Jeffco school board unanimously approved Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s recommendation to close 16 elementary schools at the end of this school year.

The district made the recommendation in August, as part of a plan to address a trend of declining enrollment that accelerated during the pandemic.

The district has a budget deficit and now has drawn $32 million from its reserves to cover expenses this year. Leaders expect closing and consolidating the schools will save up to $12 million. The district may also add to its revenues later if it sells or leases the vacant properties.

But Dorland and board members said closing schools is not only about saving money. They also worry that the district’s small schools can’t offer equitable or rigorous programs as larger schools can.

For example, some of the schools slated for closure can’t afford more than a few teachers, so they must have students from mixed grades in a classroom. That means teachers have fewer peers with whom to collaborate, must make several lesson plans, and may juggle multiple curricular resources.

As other school districts do, Jeffco funds its schools largely based on student counts; thus small schools get less operating funds than do larger ones. The district, in turn, gets state and federal operating dollars also per student. Subsidizing small schools draws money from other programs.

Jeffco, the state’s second-largest district, had 14% fewer children under 18 in 2020 living within its boundaries than it had in 2000. District enrollment has been falling for many years. The current estimate of students this fall is 77,205, down from 87,700 in 2000.

The district selected the 16 schools using three criteria. They all had fewer than 220 students as of Aug. 15, or were using less than 45% of their building’s capacity at the time. Each school also had to be near another one that could accept the students.

In total, the district has said the closures will displace almost 2,600 students and affect the equivalent of about 422 full-time jobs.

The recommended closings have left some parents with a lot of questions and worries.

Some wonder if the designated receiving school will have capacity for all the new students. Others worry that academics weren’t considered, and neither was the programming of the schools.

One of the schools on the closure list, Colorow, had just won its status as an International Baccalaureate elementary school this fall, for example, one of just four elementaries in the district to have the program.

Lisa Siler, center, sits with her son, Logan, 6, and daughter, Addison, 9, as the school board discussed closing 16 elementary schools. The children attend Wilmore Davis Elementary, one of the schools on the closure list.

Another worry is that with the consolidation of middle and high schools not yet decided, some students may have their schooling disrupted more than once. The district has said it would turn its attention to secondary school plans in January and may have recommendations for those schools next year.

A report from a consultant hired to help run community engagement before the vote said many families weren’t happy, and the consultants had to adjust their approach. Many parents wanted to talk about the recommendations and ask more questions, instead of just talking about their hopes for after a transition.

Representatives of Keystone Policy Center, the district’s outreach consultant, said they’ve encountered a lot of misinformation and a lack of trust in the process.

Before the vote Thursday night, parents and community members during public comment asked the district to reconsider. Later, some shouted as the board voted ended the meeting.

The district had set aside two hours for public comment, but only needed a little more than an hour to accommodate the people who signed up.

One of those included Korey Stites, a council member in Wheat Ridge, who criticized the process for engagement and said the district didn’t communicate with city officials like him.

He said that if a more engaged process resulted in his community’s schools closing, he would be able to accept it.

“What I can’t get on board with is the fact that our opinions didn’t matter,” Stites said.

Other parents asked the board to table the recommendations until the district could find other ways to save money, such as cutting administrative staff or salaries and implementing furloughs. Another parent asked the district to first consult with an equity or anti-racism expert who could offer feedback on the plans.

In approving the closures, school board members noted they amended their resolution to include new requests from district staff including the creation of a transition plan, a new plan for allocations for Title I and at-risk students, an analysis of transportation needs and the adjustments required, and an engagement plan for creating recommendations for what to do with empty or underutilized buildings. Board member Paula Reed refuted criticism that the community engagement before the vote, including at least 16 hours of public comment, was a mere performance.

“It means a great deal to hear people speak so passionately for their schools. It makes this harder and that’s probably how it should be,” Reed said. “It shouldn’t be an easy thing to do.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Sara Stites, center, comforts her husband Korey Stites after the Jeffco school board voted to close 16 elementary schools, including Kullerstrand Elementary where their children attend. Val Nosler-Beck reaches from behind and pats Sara Stites on the shoulder.

Lo que necesitas saber sobre la recomendación de cerrar escuelas en Denver

2022-11-11T23:01:18+00:00

Read in English.

Nuevo: ¿Aún cerrarán escuelas en Denver? Lo que sabemos hasta el momento.

El superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, Alex Marrero, ha recomendado cerrar 10 escuelas primarias e intermedias debido a la la reducción en la matrícula. Es una recomendación controversial que está recibiendo resistencia por parte de las familias afectadas e incluso de algunas de las personas responsables de tomar decisiones.

Esto es lo que necesitas saber.

1. ¿Qué escuelas Denver está recomendando cerrar?

Escuela Primaria Columbian. Los estudiantes serían reasignados a Trevista at Horace Mann, aunque cualquier estudiante de Denver puede solicitar para asistir a cualquier escuela del distrito.

Escuela Primaria Palmer. La mayoría de los estudiantes serían reasignados a la Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment. Los estudiantes de preescolar se quedarían en Palmer, que se convertirá en un centro de educación para la niñez temprana (Early Childhood Education).

Math Science Leadership Academy. Los estudiantes serían reasignados a Escuela Primaria Valverde.

Escuela Primaria Schmitt. Los estudiantes serían reasignados a Escuela Primaria Godsman.

Escuela Primaria Eagleton. Los estudiantes serían reasignados a Escuela Primaria Cowell.

Escuela Primaria Fairview. Los estudiantes serían reasignados a Escuela Primaria Cheltenham.

Escuela Primaria Colfax. La mayoría de los estudiantes serían reasignados a la Escuela Primaria Cheltenham. Los estudiantes de preescolar se quedarían en Colfax, que se convertiría en un centro de educación para la niñez temprana (Early Childhood Education).

International Academy of Denver at Harrington. Los estudiantes se incorporarían a una nueva zona de inscripción que incluye la Escuela Primaria Columbine y la Escuela Primaria Swansea, lo que significa que los estudiantes podrían optar por asistir a cualquiera de las dos.

Denver Discovery School. Los estudiantes podrían elegir entre las otras cinco escuelas intermedias de la zona de inscripción Park Hill/Central Park. Las zonas de inscripción abarcan los límites geográficos de varias escuelas. Los estudiantes que viven en zonas tienen un espacio garantizado en una de las escuelas, pero no necesariamente en la escuela más cerca de su hogar.

Whittier ECE-8. Los estudiantes de K-5 podrían elegir una de tres escuelas primarias en la zona de inscripción de la Escuela Primaria Greater Five Points. Los estudiantes de la escuela media podrían elegir una de las otras tres escuelas intermedias de la zona de inscripción de la Escuela Intermedia Near Northeast.

Actualizado: Después de recomendar inicialmente el cierre de 10 escuelas, Marrero publicó una nueva lista más corta de cinco escuelas que reciben los subsidios presupuestarios más grandes. Esas escuelas son su prioridad principal para el cierre, pero otras escuelas en la lista aún podrían cerrarse. Las escuelas de prioridad para cerrar son: Denver Discovery School, Schmitt Elementary, Fairview Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington y Math and Science Leadership Academy.

Escuela Primaria Fairview es uno de 10 escuelas en Denver recomendadas para el cierre.

2. ¿Cuándo cerrarían las escuelas?

Las 10 escuelas cerrarían al final de este año escolar.

Según el calendario propuesto, los estudiantes de las escuelas que van a cerrar se transferirán a las escuelas receptoras el próximo año escolar, 2023-24. Las dos comunidades pasarán el año rediseñando los programas educativos para el año escolar 2024-25.

3. ¿Qué pasará con los edificios?

En una presentación, el distrito dijo que no tiene intención de vender ningún edificio. “En los casos en los que edificios enteros o parciales queden vacíos, trabajaremos con la comunidad para pedir opiniones y hacer recomendaciones sobre qué hacer con ese edificio”, dice la presentación.

4. ¿Cómo eligió el superintendente esas escuelas?

Marrero recomendó cerrar las escuelas primarias e intermedias de Denver que tuvieran menos de 215 estudiantes este año, sin contar los estudiantes en preescolar.

Ese criterio fue uno de los tres recomendados por un comité de padres, maestros y miembros de la comunidad. El comité también recomendó evaluar las escuelas con menos de 275 estudiantes que esperan perder entre un 8% y un 10% más de estudiantes en los próximos dos años, y las escuelas chárter que no son financieramente solventes, pero Marrero no aplicó esos criterios esta vez.

Sin embargo, Marrero dijo que también tuvo en cuenta la geografía. Ocho de las 10 escuelas recomendadas para el cierre tienen otra u otras escuelas a menos de 2 millas de distancia, lo cual significa que están suficientemente cerca como para recibir a sus estudiantes, dijo. Dos de las 10 se unirían a las zonas de inscripción existentes.

Seis de las 10 escuelas de Denver recomendadas para el cierre ofrecen educación bilingüe para estudiantes que hablan español, lo cual se conoce como Transitional Native Language Instruction, o TNLI. Marrero dijo que el distrito aseguró que los estudiantes de esas escuelas pudieran continuar con la TNLI o con un currículo en dos idiomas en una escuela cercana.

5. ¿Por qué no están en la lista otras escuelas pequeñas?

Los administradores del distrito optaron por no incluir a otras cuatro escuelas con menos de 215 estudiantes: Escuela Primaria Ashley, Escuela Primaria Beach Court, Escuela Primaria Kaiser y la Hallett Academy. Marrero dijo que se debió a que no hay ninguna otra escuela en un radio de 2 millas alrededor con suficiente capacidad para recibir a tantos estudiantes nuevos.

En los casos de Ashley y Beach Court, las posibles escuelas receptoras, Montclair y Trevista, ya estarían recibiendo estudiantes de Palmer y Columbian, dijo el personal del distrito.

En el caso de la Hallett Academy, hay tres escuelas primarias en un radio de 2 millas: Stedman, Smith y Park Hill. Pero el personal del distrito dijo que ninguna de esas escuelas tiene suficiente espacio para acomodar a todos los estudiantes de Hallett.

Y Kaiser no tiene ninguna otra escuela primaria cerca.

Seis de las 10 escuelas recomendadas para el cierre en Denver tienen programas bilingües. Escuela Primaria Colfax es una de ellas.

6. ¿Por qué no contaron a los estudiantes de preescolar en la matrícula?

La respuesta corta es que la educación preescolar es que los fondos provienen de otra fuente.

La respuesta más larga se relaciona con el motivo por el que Denver está recomendando cerrar escuelas. Las escuelas de Denver reciben una cantidad de fondos por cada estudiante. Pero ese dinero recibido por estudiante, la mayor parte del cual viene del estado, es solamente para estudiantes desde Kinder hasta 12^mo grado.

Las escuelas con menos estudiantes reciben menos dinero, lo que significa que batallan para poder contratar más personal. Las escuelas pequeñas podrían tener que eliminar clases como arte o música, combinar dos niveles de grado en un solo salón o tener un psicólogo a tiempo parcial en vez de uno a tiempo completo.

Marrero dijo que será “casi imposible” ofrecerles una educación completa a todos los estudiantes si no se consolidan las escuelas. El distrito subsidia a las escuelas con menos de 215 estudiantes, pero los funcionarios dicen que es caro. Este año, el distrito está usando $7.5 millones en subsidios.

El programa preescolar, en cambio, se financia con una combinación de matrículas pagadas por los padres, impuestos de venta de la ciudad, y fondos federales y estatales, por lo que no se incluyó en el cálculo del cierre.

7. ¿Las escuelas receptoras tendrán espacio suficiente?

El distrito dice que sí, aunque algunos padres y miembros de la comunidad se preguntan si es cierto, especialmente por las construcciones de vivienda planificadas, que pueden resultar en más estudiantes.

Aquí se muestra la capacidad de cada escuela receptora y de la matrícula que el distrito dice que anticipa tener si recibiera a todos los estudiantes de las escuelas que van a cerrar.

Trevista: Tiene capacidad para 855 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 583 estudiantes.

Montclair: Tiene capacidad para 511 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 455 estudiantes.

Valverde: Tiene capacidad para 510 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 393 estudiantes.

Godsman: Tiene capacidad para 739 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 483 estudiantes.

Cowell: Tiene capacidad para 598 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 515 estudiantes.

Cheltenham: Tiene capacidad para 644 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada sea de 555 estudiantes.

Swansea y Columbine: La capacidad total de ambas escuelas es 1,115 estudiantes. Se proyecta que la matrícula combinada de las tres escuelas en la zona sea de 816.

8. ¿Quién tomará la decisión final y cuándo?

El junta escolar de siete miembros tiene la última palabra. La junta tiene programado votar por la recomendación el 17 de noviembre. Se requiere mayoría de votos para aprobar la recomendación.

Sin embargo, tres miembros de la junta han dicho que no pueden apoyar la recomendación, y otros han planteado dudas sobre un proceso que, según ellos, ha erosionado la confianza de la comunidad.

El 14 de noviembre, la junta tendrá una sesión de comentarios públicos para conocer las opiniones sobre la propuesta. Los que quieran hablar tienen que inscribirse con antelación. Inscríbete aquí para hablar ese día.

Melanie Asmar es una reportera senior de Chalkbeat Colorado que cubre las escuelas públicas de Denver. Para comunicarte con Melanie, envíale un mensaje a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Where are the kids? Colorado school enrollment trends shed light on closure discussions

2022-11-10T02:56:34+00:00

As three large metro area school districts grapple with school closures due to declining enrollment, a common question looms: Where did all the children go?

To help answer that question, Chalkbeat looked at school enrollment data, county birth rate data, and U.S. Census data showing the number of children under 18 living in each school district. Looking to the future, we also examined federal school enrollment projections. Some numbers, like enrollment counts for private schools, aren’t available.

We found that lower birth rates played a role, as did some students enrolling in publicly funded but independently run charter schools. Other students ended up in the outer reaches of the metro area as their parents sought more affordable housing.

Below, we shed light on the numbers that contribute to how many students show up to class.

Are there fewer children now than there were 20 years ago?

The answer in some parts of the state is yes, while the answer in other parts of the state is no.

Jeffco Public Schools has seen a steady decline in the number of children. The state’s second-largest district had 14% fewer children under 18 in 2020 living within its boundaries than it had in 2000. The same was true in Littleton Public Schools, which had 15% fewer children.

In several other metro area districts, the number of children has gone up and down, in some cases dramatically. From 2000 to 2020, the number of children living in the Aurora Public Schools district grew 77%. But the numbers were declining by 2015. The same pattern happened in the Adams 12 Five Star, Adams 14, and Denver Public Schools districts.

Rising housing prices often push families out of cities to farther-out suburbs and rural areas where the cost of living is lower and there’s more land to build new single-family homes. Much of the new housing being built in cities and close-in suburbs are the type of apartments that have historically catered to adults without kids.

In a few school districts, the number of children under 18 has exploded. Those districts include 27J Schools, headquartered in the city of Brighton northeast of Denver, and School District 49, which includes parts of Colorado Springs.

The number of children living in 27J increased a whopping 230%. In District 49, which bills itself as the fastest-growing school district in the state, it increased 244%.

The under-18 population in the Cherry Creek School District southeast of Denver also has been growing, but not as dramatically. It grew 33% from 2000 to 2020. The same is true for Greeley-Evans School District 6, where the under-18 population grew 44%. And the number of children living in the Douglas County School District was up 65%.

Have lots of students left district-run schools for charter schools?

In three large districts facing school closures, the answer is yes. But the migration to charter schools only partly accounts for the enrollment drop in district-run schools.

In Aurora Public Schools, in 2005, less than 3% of students were enrolled in charter schools. But the number of students in charter schools doubled from about 3,000 in 2010 to about 6,000, or 16.2% of all Aurora students, by 2020.

In Denver Public Schools, only 8% of the district’s students attended charter schools in 2005. By 2010, that percentage had increased to 11% and by 2020 it was 23%.

Part of the reason is that there were far fewer charter schools in 2005 than there are now. For example, Denver had 20 charter schools in 2005. In 2020, it had 60.

In Jeffco Public Schools in 2010 about 6.8% of students, or about 5,800, attended charter schools. By 2020, nearly 12%, or 9,500, attended charter schools.

In addition, in Jeffco and Aurora, some students attend charter schools authorized by the state and not included in those numbers.

What about babies? Are people just not having as many?

Yes. For most metro area counties, the birthrate is lower now than it was in 2000.

For example, in Denver County, which has the same boundary as the city, the birthrate per 1,000 people fell from 17.14 in the year 2000 to 11.78 in 2021.

The same pattern was true for Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, and Broomfield counties. But demographers are predicting upticks for Douglas and Broomfield counties by 2025. Birthrates in the other counties are expected to stay steady or slightly decrease.

In Jefferson County, the births per 1,000 people decreased from 12.72 in 2000 to 9.23 in 2021. State demographer Elizabeth Gardner said birthrates there have been declining since 2001.

While Jeffco schools may enroll more children in the future, Gardner said she doesn’t expect that overall the district will have as many children as it once did.

“I don’t believe we ever get Jefferson County back to the level of births — or the level of kids they had in 2001,” Gardner said.

Statewide, her office is projecting a rise in children again by approximately 2035, but in part that’s because of more women in the state, not because the birthrate will spike.

Will school enrollment go back up again?

The likely answer is no. Across the country, federal data shows the number of students in U.S. public schools had been trending upward since 1990. Now, the total student counts seem to have peaked in 2019, just before the pandemic.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of U.S. students is expected to hover around 49 million students for a few more years before decreasing to about 47 million by 2030. Projections show Colorado’s student count dropping from about 880,597 last year to about 817,300 in the same period.

In some regions, student numbers will increase, but that growth could be in different neighborhoods and communities, depending on housing construction and affordability.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

What you need to know about Denver’s school closure recommendation

2022-11-11T22:50:55+00:00

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Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero has recommended closing 10 elementary and middle schools because of declining enrollment. It’s a controversial recommendation that’s getting pushback from affected families and even some decision-makers.

Here’s what you need to know.

1. Which schools is Denver recommending for closure?

Columbian Elementary. Students would be reassigned to Trevista at Horace Mann, though any student in Denver can apply to attend any school in the district.

Palmer Elementary. Most students would be reassigned to Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment. Preschool students would stay at Palmer, which would become an early childhood education center.

Math Science Leadership Academy. Students would be reassigned to Valverde Elementary.

Schmitt Elementary. Students would be reassigned to Godsman Elementary.

Eagleton Elementary. Students would be reassigned to Cowell Elementary.

Fairview Elementary. Students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary.

Colfax Elementary. Most students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary. Preschool students would stay at Colfax, which would become an ECE center.

International Academy of Denver at Harrington. Students would join a new enrollment zone containing Columbine Elementary and Swansea Elementary, which means students could choose to attend either Columbine or Swansea.

Denver Discovery School. Students could choose among the five other middle schools in the Greater Park Hill/Central Park Enrollment Zone. Enrollment zones encompass the boundaries of several schools. Students who live in zones are guaranteed a seat at one of the schools, though not necessarily the school closest to their home.

Whittier ECE-8. K-5 students could choose among three other elementary schools in the Greater Five Points Elementary Enrollment Zone. Middle school students could choose among the three other middle schools in the Near Northeast Middle School Enrollment Zone.

Updated: After initially recommending 10 schools for closure, Marrero released a new, shorter list of five schools that receive the largest budget subsidies. Those schools are his top priority for closure, but other schools on the list could still be closed. The priority schools are: Denver Discovery School, Schmitt Elementary, Fairview Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, and Math and Science Leadership Academy

2. When would the schools close?

The 10 schools would close at the end of this school year.

According to the proposed timeline, the students from the closing schools would go to the receiving schools next school year, 2023-24. The two communities would spend the year re-envisioning programming that would start in 2024-25.

3. What would happen to the buildings?

In a presentation, the district said it does not intend to sell any buildings. “In cases where whole or partial buildings will be vacant, we will work with the community to solicit input and make recommendations on what to do with that building,” the presentation says.

4. How did the superintendent choose those schools?

Marrero recommended closing Denver elementary and middle schools with fewer than 215 students this year, not counting preschoolers.

That criteria was one of three recommended by a committee of parents, teachers, and community members. The committee also recommended looking at schools with fewer than 275 students that expect to lose 8% to 10% more students in the next couple of years and charter schools that are financially insolvent, but Marrero didn’t apply those criteria this time.

However, Marrero said he also considered geography. Eight of the 10 schools recommended for closure have another school or schools within 2 miles with enough space to receive their students, he said. Two of the 10 would join existing enrollment zones.

Six of the 10 Denver schools recommended for closure offer bilingual education for Spanish-speaking students known as Transitional Native Language Instruction, or TNLI. Marrero said the district made sure students from those schools could continue either TNLI or dual-language programming at a nearby school.

5. Why are other small schools not on the list?

District administrators spared four other schools with less than 215 students: Ashley Elementary, Beach Court Elementary, Kaiser Elementary, and Hallett Academy. Marrero said it was because there is no other school within 2 miles with room for so many new students.

In the cases of Ashley and Beach Court, the would-be receiving schools, Montclair and Trevista, would already be getting students from Palmer and Columbian, district staff said.

In the case of Hallett Academy, there are three elementary schools within 2 miles: Stedman, Smith, and Park Hill. But district staff said none of those schools have enough open seats to accommodate all of Hallett’s students.

And Kaiser doesn’t have any other elementaries nearby.

6. Why weren’t preschool students counted in enrollment?

The short answer is that preschool is funded differently.

The longer answer gets at why Denver is recommending school closures in the first place. Denver’s schools are funded per student. But that per-pupil funding, most of which comes from the state, is only for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Schools with fewer students have less money, which means they struggle to afford staff. Small schools might have to cut classes like art or music, combine two grade levels into one classroom, or have a part-time psychologist instead of a full-time one.

Marrero said providing all students with a well-rounded education will be “almost impossible” without consolidating schools. The district subsidizes schools with fewer than 215 students, but officials said it’s expensive. This year, the district is spending $7.5 million on subsidies.

Preschool, on the other hand, is funded with a combination of parent-paid tuition, city sales taxes, and federal and state funding, so it wasn’t part of the closure calculus.

7. Are the receiving schools big enough?

The district says yes, though some parents and community members are questioning if that’s true, especially in light of planned housing developments that may yield more students.

Here is a breakdown of the capacity of each receiving school and the enrollment the district says it expects if all students from the closing schools go to the receiving schools.

Trevista: Capacity is 855 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 583.

Montclair: Capacity is 511 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 455.

Valverde: Capacity is 510 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 393.

Godsman: Capacity is 739 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 483.

Cowell: Capacity is 598 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 515.

Cheltenham: Capacity is 644 students. Combined enrollment is projected to be 555.

Swansea and Columbine: The total capacity of the two schools is 1,115 students. The combined enrollment of the three schools that would be in the zone is projected to be 816.

8. Who will make the final decision and when?

The seven-member school board has the final say. The board is scheduled to vote on the recommendation on Nov. 17. To pass, the recommendation needs a majority vote.

But at least three board members have said they can’t support the recommendation, and others have raised questions about a process they said has eroded the community’s trust.

The board is hosting a public comment session Nov. 14 to hear feedback on the proposal. Those wanting to speak have to sign up ahead of time. The sign-up opens Monday.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

School closures: How Denver, Jeffco, and Aurora are approaching the decision

2022-11-04T22:10:28+00:00

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Three of Colorado’s largest school districts — Denver, Jeffco, and Aurora — are grappling with the same problem: declining enrollment. But each is approaching school closure decisions differently.

The Aurora district has already closed eight schools over the last two years, with some still being phased out. Board members have struggled with the decisions, initially voting against two closure recommendations this year before reversing themselves.

Now the district is beginning a process to figure out what to do with the empty buildings, even as more closures are a possibility.

In Jeffco, after abruptly closing two schools in the last two years, a new administration recommended closing 16 elementary schools all at once at the end of this school year. The Jeffco school board is set to vote on that recommendation Thursday. The district will likely also recommend closing middle or high schools next year.

Denver has started, paused, and restarted a school closure process over the past two years. Ultimately, the superintendent recommended closing 10 elementary and middle schools at the end of this school year. The Denver school board is set to vote on Nov. 17.

Parents have a lot of questions about these decisions: How are schools picked for closure? Why are some districts closing so many schools at once? Why aren’t school districts considering academics or the role schools play in their communities?

Below, we answer some of the most common questions and break down how the three districts differ in their approaches.

What factors did the districts consider in picking which schools to close?

Denver and Jeffco based their decision mostly on enrollment, while Aurora considered a range of factors, including how school buildings might be repurposed.

In Denver and Jeffco, schools with too few students — fewer than 215 in Denver and fewer than 220 in Jeffco — were considered for closure.

Leaders in both districts also considered whether another school or schools within a few miles could take in the students from the closed school. For example, Denver spared four small schools because officials said there is no school within 2 miles that could receive their students.

There were other factors as well. In Denver, administrators wanted to make sure Spanish-speaking students would be able to continue bilingual or dual-language education. And in Jeffco, administrators also considered how much building space is being used.

Aurora, which started its school closure process in 2018, took a different approach. The district created seven regions and looked at enrollment trends in each zone, how many buildings the district might need, and which buildings could house new magnet programs or be used for other purposes.

One reason the community and board helped Aurora pick this approach is because the district is losing students in some regions while adding new subdivisions on the eastern plains. Leaders saw an opportunity to combine school closures with a larger strategic plan.

Why are Denver and Jeffco closing so many schools at once?

Declining enrollment isn’t a new problem. Leaders in Denver and Jeffco say delaying decisions in the past has led to schools that lack the resources to serve students well, despite substantial budget subsidies. Jeffco also wants to avoid emergency decisions that leave families reeling, such as happened at Allendale and Fitzmorris elementary schools.

In both Denver and Jeffco, the superintendent has asked the school board to vote on the closure recommendations as a package — all or none.

“We believe taking care of this in a rapid fashion will support our school community to do something really hard and then move on and create more thriving experiences for our students,” Jeffco Superintendent Tracy Dorland said.

Jeffco leaders also said they wanted to avoid making closure decisions every year, leaving families worried for a long time. In Aurora, a longer path with years of community engagement still left families frustrated and surprised by closure recommendations.

But Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn said taking the work in phases allows the district to track the impact.

“It’s a very dynamic field where we’re talking about student enrollment and demographic shifts — particularly post-pandemic,” Munn said. “We wanted to stop and reflect along the way.”

This fall, the district reopened two schools as magnet schools and is starting to track how the interest in those schools may affect enrollment throughout the region and the district. But it’s too early to know, Munn said.

Why wasn’t academics a factor?

Closing schools based on academics and test scores has fallen out of political favor, and none of the districts looked at performance in deciding which schools to close and which to save.

Superintendent Munn in Aurora said the state already has an accountability system that tracks school performance and can issue orders, including closure, as a consequence of not improving. “There wasn’t interest in creating a second one,” he said.

But that’s raised questions for parents and community members: Why close schools that are working for students?

What can school communities do to stop closures?

Not much, it seems.

Across the three districts, administrators have tried to avoid situations where parents, teachers, and community members rally to save their schools.

In Aurora, school board members gave into public pressure and rejected two closure recommendations only to reverse themselves two months later.

Board members, most of whom hadn’t been elected yet when Aurora’s Blueprint plan launched, wondered why the district didn’t consider how involved parents are in their school or how a school fit into its community context when making closure recommendations.

Munn said considering community involvement would be unfair. Parents working multiple jobs might love their school but not be able to attend meetings. Larger schools could turn out more parents to fight closure.

“Everyone wanted to avoid putting school communities against each other,” Munn said. “You don’t want to be creating a popularity contest.”

Denver and Jeffco have largely followed Aurora’s lead in this regard, and it’s one reason board members are being asked to approve closures as a package, not one by one.

Dorland, the Jeffco superintendent, went so far as to say community outreach won’t change the outcome. In Denver, though, some school board members seem troubled by the lack of opportunity for communities to address individual closure decisions.

How did community input factor into decision-making?

Of the three districts, Aurora had the most extensive community engagement process. But in all three, administrators ultimately decided which schools to recommend for closure.

Now Denver and Jeffco leaders are seeking feedback from parents and teachers on how to help the transition go smoothly — an approach that’s led to anger and frustration.

Aurora kicked off the planning for what became Blueprint in 2018 with consultants helping with surveys, focus groups, and community meetings. The district concluded that families wanted more school options, but that the choices should be provided by the district, not charter schools.

The district created regions with unique specializations and is developing new magnet schools to match those themes. The need for school closures — or “repurposing” — was embedded in this process from the start, though not all community members understood that. The district didn’t get a lot of pushback for the first rounds of school closures. This year parents fought back but ultimately were not successful.

Denver convened community groups starting in 2017. The Strengthening Neighborhoods Committee met with the goal of combating segregation in schools and addressing the effects of gentrification. One of its recommendations was a “transparent school consolidation process” that would allow communities to “reimagine” their own schools.

A second committee formed this year, the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee, came up with school closure criteria that was applied to the most recent recommendation. But committee members were divided because many wanted to talk about avoiding the need for school closures — something district administrators said was not on the table.

Now Denver’s community engagement has moved to individual schools. Each principal is explaining the recommendation to their school community and doing their best to answer questions, a strategy that Superintendent Alex Marrero described as “intimate and intense.”

“I think the folks who they know and they love and adore and they follow are the ones who can tell them, ‘Okay, here’s the plan and here’s why it’s necessary,’” Marrero said.

The Denver school board will also host a single public comment session on Nov. 14.

In Jeffco, Dorland made clear that the community feedback would not change the recommendations. Community engagement was meant to address what families need to get through the transition.

Still, each school slated for closure has had an hour-long public comment session with the school board, adding up to at least 16 hours of public comment.

But in a report from the consulting group leading that work, it became clear families weren’t happy. Many still wanted to talk about the recommendations and have more questions answered, and Keystone Policy Center said they’ve encountered a lot of misinformation and a lack of trust in the process.

How did the districts decide on the timeline for informing parents?

Of the three districts, Denver’s timeline is the shortest, with just over three weeks between the recommendations announcement on Oct. 25 and the scheduled vote on Nov. 17. If the board votes yes, the 10 schools would close at the end of this school year.

But Denver Superintendent Marrero argued that the process actually started in June 2021 when the school board passed a resolution directing the superintendent to consolidate small schools.

The board needs to vote this month so there is enough time to operationalize the plan for next fall, Marrero said. He also said that slowing down the process would cause students and staff to flee the schools recommended for closure, exacerbating enrollment losses.

In Jeffco, families are getting more time than in previous emergency closures.

For instance, when the district closed Allendale and Fitzmorris, families were informed in the spring, with just weeks left before the school year ended and the school closed.

Families missed the first round of choice enrollment, and the district worked individually with families to place students for the next school year. This time, the Nov. 10 board vote is scheduled before the district launches its choice enrollment process for the year. If families want to choose a different school than the one the district recommends, they can.

Aurora has also increased the timeline between recommendations and closures.

In the first round of closures voted on in January 2021, the first school closed June 2021, with others phased out over time. In the second round of closures, the board voted in the spring of 2022 and schools will close at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Did the districts consider how many students they might have in the future?

Yes. All three districts relied on analysis that takes into account factors such as birth rates, housing development, and mobility in predicting trends in school-age population.

In Denver, the most recent analysis, done this past spring, shows that the city has fewer children now than a decade ago. Births are declining fastest among Hispanic families, which the district predicts “will have a significant negative impact” on enrollment. Currently, a little more than half of the approximately 90,000 students in Denver Public Schools are Hispanic.

The analysis also notes that most planned or permitted developments are condos, apartments, and townhomes, which have historically yielded fewer students than single-family homes. But some community members, and even organizations such as the quasi-municipal Denver Housing Authority, are questioning Denver’s projections.

In Jeffco, a similar analysis presented to the school board Wednesday showed that students who come from families in poverty are leaving the district at higher rates than more affluent students. The two most common exit codes tracked by the district show students leave for other districts or to another state. District leaders said they suspect lack of affordable housing is pushing out families.

In Aurora, the number of students is projected to eventually grow again, but not necessarily in the same neighborhoods as in the past.

New housing developments are taking off in the eastern part of the district, which could call for new schools. Schools in the western part of the district, closer to Denver, continue to see steep declines as high housing costs push out families.

Originally, Aurora leaders expected enrollment to start growing by 2021, but Superintendent Munn said the pandemic sped up the declines in the west, changing the timeline. Growth is still expected, but the district is closely watching data to analyze when it might happen.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

School board members and parents question Denver superintendent’s proposal to close 10 schools

2022-11-04T04:58:46+00:00

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero’s proposal to close 10 schools received a rocky reception from the school board Thursday, with some board members grilling him about a recommendation that has roiled school communities.

Three of the seven board members — Auon’tai Anderson, Michelle Quattlebaum, and Scott Esserman — said during Thursday’s meeting or in interviews afterward that they oppose the closures, which Marrero has said are necessary to address declining enrollment.

Two more — Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay — said they are undecided.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán declined to say how she will vote. But she said she’s concerned some students, including English language learners, are not getting the robust services they deserve at the 10 schools because funding is short. Board member Carrie Olson was absent from Thursday’s meeting due to a family emergency.

Several board members suggested sending Marrero back to the drawing board by revoking the resolution that directed him to come up with a plan for consolidating schools in the first place. They said the process has felt rushed, top-down, and not transparent.

“There are a lot of unknowns that are not giving our families and community comfort in this process,” Quattlebaum said.

Marrero is billing the closures as consolidations because students and staff from the 10 schools would be reassigned to schools nearby. The school board is scheduled to vote on the package — all 10 closures or none at all — on Nov. 17.

In the nine days since the recommendation was announced, parents and family members at the 10 schools have gathered in meetings scheduled by principals to hear more and vent their concerns about a proposal that many say blindsided them.

At several of the meetings, the principals have stood with mid-level district administrators in cafeterias, facing rows of frustrated parents and grandparents, some with toddlers in tow. The meetings have been full of questions and short on answers.

Parents have wanted to know how big class sizes will be at the consolidated schools. But officials said that’s impossible to know until they see how many students show up next year.

Parents asked for assurances that the district won’t turn around and close the receiving schools in a year or two, disrupting their children’s education yet again. But officials couldn’t give it.

Families wanted to know how the district will provide transportation to the consolidated schools in the midst of a bus driver shortage. The district will do its best, officials said.

Above all, families wanted to know if they could save their schools from closure.

“Is this just a foregone conclusion and our elected officials are not persuadable?” asked Rick Levy, the father of a preschooler at Eagleton Elementary, one of the 10 schools recommended for closure, at a Thursday morning meeting in the school’s cafeteria.

“They absolutely want to hear from you,” said Dana Williams, an administrator who oversees a group of elementary schools, including Eagleton.

But no elected officials attended that meeting. School board members have attended some meetings at the 10 schools recommended for closure, but not all. There weren’t any board members at a 3:30 p.m. meeting at Columbian Elementary the day before, either.

In some cases, the meetings overlapped, making it impossible for board members to be in two places at once. In other cases, board members weren’t notified until an hour before.

At least two community organizations have called for more robust engagement.

EDUCATE Denver, a coalition of civic leaders, and Denver Families for Public Schools, a nonprofit that among other initiatives aims to increase participation in school board elections, separately called on the district to hold at least one meeting at each school that could close and at each school that might receive their students. The superintendent and the local board member should attend those meetings, both groups said.

Both groups also called for the board to hold an extended public comment session, and for the district to facilitate one-on-one meetings with families affected by the closures.

But thus far, the only opportunity for parents and community members to plead their case before all seven board members who will vote on the recommendation is a single public comment session scheduled for Nov. 14, three days before the vote.

Marrero defended the tight timeline Thursday. Slowing down the process would cause staff and students to flee from the schools recommended for closure, he said, further draining them of per-pupil funding. Consolidations work best when everyone can move to a new school together, he said. But some board members pushed back.

“When we have not had direct conversations with the impacted communities until we have come forward with the plan, that is district led, that is not community led,” Esserman said.

Families at Columbian and Eagleton agreed that the district isn’t providing enough opportunity for them to speak out. Parents are finding they don’t have much time to organize. At Columbian, parent Darcy Cornish Lovato handed out handwritten “Save our school” lawn signs. At Eagleton, Tara De La Fuente urged other parents to scan a QR code and sign a petition.

“One or two meetings at each school is not going to cover all the households,” said Arturo Orozco, the father of a fifth grader at Eagleton. Many parents, he said, have to work and can’t attend in-person meetings on a weekday morning or afternoon.

“This is more than just a school. This is a community,” Orozco said.

“Our community is going to hurt because of this.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Superintendent defends push to close 10 schools; parents disheartened

2022-10-26T23:01:47+00:00

Jasmine White doesn’t want her third-grade daughter to have to switch schools.

She chose the school, Palmer Elementary, for several reasons. For one, it’s close to both her house and her older daughter’s middle school so the sisters can walk home together. And it’s more diverse than other schools in the neighborhood. White, who is Black, didn’t want her younger daughter to be bullied for her skin color as her older daughter was.

“At Palmer,” White said, “they embrace my baby.”

Palmer is one of 10 Denver schools that Superintendent Alex Marrero recommended Tuesday be closed or consolidated with other schools. The 10 schools include eight elementary schools, one K-8 school, and one middle school. The school board is set to vote on the closures as a package deal — all 10 closures or no closures at all — on Nov. 17.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, and Marrero said schools with fewer students can’t offer robust programming. His closure recommendations, he said, are based on criteria developed by a committee of parents, teachers, and community members that suggested closing schools with fewer than 215 students in kindergarten or above.

In an interview Wednesday, Marrero said 14 schools actually met the criteria. But the other four were spared because of geography, he said: There wasn’t another elementary school within 2 miles that could receive the small school’s students.

“That’s how we settled to the 10,” he said. “And I believe that they are the right 10.”

Enrollment at the 10 schools this year ranges from a low of 93 students at Denver Discovery School to a high of 212 students at Eagleton Elementary, not counting preschool, Marrero said.

Nine of the 10 schools serve a student population that is predominantly Black and Hispanic, and most students qualify for subsidized school meals, an indicator of poverty.

That the closures would hit low-income communities of color hardest — as past Denver school closures have — flies in the face of the district’s stated value of equity, parents said.

“The district talks a very strong equity game but doesn’t necessarily live that out,” said Manuel Aragon, whose youngest child is in fourth grade at Colfax Elementary, one of the 10 schools.

He said the timing of the news, in the midst of a pandemic, is particularly difficult.

“It feels disheartening to get this news when these communities of color are fatigued,” Aragon said. “So many were impacted financially and emotionally and have lost family members to COVID and gone through such extreme circumstances — and here’s one more.”

Marrero said this list of 10 schools is more fair than a previous list of 19 schools that he scrapped a year ago, which he said was “glaring” in the way it predominantly impacted students of color. This list, he said, includes a school — Palmer — where a majority of students are white. Last year, 56% of students at Palmer were white, 17% were Hispanic, and 16% were Black. Districtwide, 25% of students are white, 52% are Hispanic, and 14% are Black.

Marrero also described the list of 10 schools as “community-driven” because it’s based on criteria developed by a community committee. But parent Shantelle Mulliniks disagrees. She said the district’s attempts at gathering feedback have been inauthentic.

“It feels like the decisions have been made long, long ago and they’re just stringing us along in the process,” said Mulliniks, who has two children at Colfax Elementary.

The timeline for the closure decisions is short. The school board is set to vote in about three weeks. Between now and then, Marrero said there will be “intimate and intense community engagement” that will consist of meetings at each of the 10 schools, plus a single public comment session on Nov. 14, three days before the school board is set to vote.

“If you go deep, there’s no need to go long,” Marrero said of the short timeline for feedback.

He added that he understands “the argument that this can be a little bit tight,” but that the potential for closures has been on the table since the school board passed a resolution in June 2021 directing the district to come up with options for consolidating schools.

That resolution also directs the district to present the board with multiple options, and to list the pros and cons for each. Some board members have said they oppose school closures, and at least one, Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, said he plans to vote against the closures.

“At this time I will be voting NO on closing all 10 schools,” he tweeted.

Parents said they are holding out hope that the board will reject the closure recommendations as too disruptive for students, parents, teachers, and communities. Mulliniks said she hopes the board will see that closing a school like Colfax Elementary, which serves students experiencing homelessness who live in nearby family shelters, is wrong.

“I still have a little bit of hope that the board will say there’s no way this is good for kids,” she said.

The 10 Denver schools recommended for closure are:

Colfax Elementary. K-5 Colfax students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary. Preschool students would stay at Colfax.
Columbian Elementary. Columbian students would be reassigned to Trevista at Horace Mann.
Eagleton Elementary. Eagleton students would be reassigned to Cowell Elementary.
Fairview Elementary. K-5 Fairview students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary. Preschool students would be reassigned to Colfax.
Math and Science Leadership Academy. MSLA students would be reassigned to Valverde Elementary.
Palmer Elementary. K-5 Palmer students would be reassigned to Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment. Preschool students would stay at Palmer.
Schmitt Elementary. Schmitt students would be reassigned to Godsman Elementary.
International Academy of Denver at Harrington. IAD at Harrington would close and its students would join a new enrollment zone containing Columbine Elementary and Swansea Elementary. Students who live in enrollment zones are not assigned to a specific school but rather asked to choose between several schools in the zone.
Denver Discovery School. Denver Discovery would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Park Hill/Central Park Enrollment Zone.
Whittier K-8. Whittier would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Five Points Elementary Enrollment Zone and the Near Northeast Middle School Enrollment Zone.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent recommends closing 10 schools

2022-10-25T23:37:25+00:00

Eight Denver elementary schools, one K-8 school, and one middle school could close at the end of this school year if the school board follows recommendations Superintendent Alex Marrero announced Tuesday. The 10 schools would consolidate with other schools in the district.

All 10 of the schools are district-run schools. The school board will hear a presentation on the recommendations Nov. 3. A vote is scheduled for Nov. 17.

“We know that these decisions are not easy for our community, but they are necessary for our scholars,” Marrero said in a press release.

“These recommendations will not only help right-size our school district,” he said, “they will allow our scholars access to more well-rounded educational experiences, and will also put the school district in a position to better address our staffing needs across the district.”

The schools Marrero is recommending for closure are:

Columbian Elementary. Columbian students would be reassigned to Trevista at Horace Mann, though all students can choose to attend any school in the district.

The district didn’t include this year’s enrollment numbers in its announcement, but Columbian had 218 students last year, according to district data. Of those 218 students, 74% were Hispanic, 15% were white, and 7% were Black. More than three-quarters of students — 78% — qualified for subsidized school meals, an indicator of family poverty.

Palmer Elementary. Most Palmer students would be reassigned to Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment. Kindergarten through fifth grade would be at Montclair and preschool would be at Palmer.

Palmer had 258 students last year, according to district data. Of those 258 students, 56% were white, 17% were Hispanic, and 16% were Black. Less than a third of students — 26% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Math Science Leadership Academy. MSLA students would be reassigned to Valverde Elementary.

MSLA had 154 students last year, according to district data. Of those 154 students, 86% were Hispanic, 6% were Black, and 4% were white. Nearly all students — 95% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Schmitt Elementary. Schmitt students would be reassigned to Godsman Elementary.

Schmitt had 201 students last year, according to district data. Of those 201 students, 68% were Hispanic, 18% were Black, and 8% were white. Nearly all students — 93% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Eagleton Elementary. Eagleton students would be reassigned to Cowell Elementary.

Eagleton had 258 students last year, according to district data. Of those 258 students, 84% were Hispanic, 8% were white, and 3% were Black. Most students — 90% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Fairview Elementary. Fairview students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary.

Fairview had 174 students last year, according to district data. Of those 174 students, 49% were Hispanic, 39% were Black, and 7% were white. Nearly all students — 95% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Colfax Elementary. Most Colfax students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary. Kindergarten through fifth grade would be at Cheltenham and preschool would be at Colfax.

Colfax had 255 students last year, according to district data. Of those 255 students, 66% were Hispanic, 16% were Black, and 11% were white. Most students — 88% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

International Academy of Denver at Harrington. IAD at Harrington would close and its students would join a new enrollment zone containing Columbine Elementary and Swansea Elementary. Students who live in enrollment zones are not assigned to a specific school but rather asked to choose between several schools in the zone.

IAD at Harrington had 167 students last year, according to district data. Of those 167 students, 75% were Hispanic, 11% were Black, and 2% were white. Most students — 88% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Denver Discovery School. Denver Discovery would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Park Hill/Central Park Enrollment Zone.

Denver Discovery had 113 students last year, according to district data. Of those 113 students, 44% were Black, 36% were Hispanic, and 5% were white. Most students — 83% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Whittier K-8. Whittier would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Five Points Elementary Enrollment Zone and the Near Northeast Middle School Enrollment Zone.

Whittier had 227 students last year, according to district data. Of those 227 students, 49% of were Black, 39% were Hispanic, and 7% were white. Most students — 90% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Denver’s seven-member elected school board has the final say on which schools close. Four of the seven board members have past experience with school closures, and some have said they oppose them. The board recently pushed back on a recommendation to close an alternative school, Montbello Career and Technical High School, which spared it from closure.

Marrero cited declining enrollment as the reason for recommending closing schools. The 90,000-student Denver Public Schools has lost about 6,000 elementary students since 2014, when elementary enrollment peaked.

Decreasing birth rates and rising housing costs that push families out of the city will cause continuing enrollment decline, district officials predict.

Fewer students means less funding. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford a robust staff of teachers, mental health workers, and others, which sometimes leads the schools to cut programming or combine classes.

But closing schools is a controversial solution. Closures can be traumatic for students, families, and teachers, who all often vehemently oppose the option.

Closures also often have an outsize impact on low-income communities of color. That’s true of Marrero’s recommendations, too. At nine of the 10 schools, most students are Black and Hispanic and come from low-income families.

Marrero’s recommendations are informed by criteria developed by a committee of parents, teachers, and community members. In June, the committee recommended Denver close elementary and middle schools with fewer than 215 students, as well as those with fewer than 275 students that expect to lose 8% to 10% more students over the next two years.

The committee also recommended that charter elementary or middle schools that have not been financially solvent for two or more years should close.

Charter schools are publicly funded and approved by the Denver school board but independently run by their own boards of directors. In the past four years, 11 charter schools have closed on their own, many due to low enrollment.

In a separate announcement Tuesday, Denver’s STRIVE Prep charter network said it is closing one of its middle schools, STRIVE Prep - Lake, at the end of the school year.

Marrero refers to the closures he’s recommending as consolidations or unifications. The difference, district officials have said, is that in a consolidation, some of the norms, values, and programs from the closing school — such as dual language or arts programs — would move to the school receiving its students.

Denver is not the only district considering school closures. The superintendent of neighboring Jeffco Public Schools has recommended closing 16 elementary schools due to low enrollment. Jeffco announced that recommendation Aug. 25, and its board is set to vote Nov. 10, giving the community about 11 weeks to provide feedback.

Denver will have a little more than three weeks until its vote.

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Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver’s STRIVE Prep charter network to close its Lake middle school

2022-10-25T21:55:31+00:00

STRIVE Prep, Denver’s second-largest charter school network, is closing one of its middle schools at the end of this school year, the network announced Tuesday.

STRIVE Prep - Lake in west Denver will close after 12 years in operation. The school currently serves 188 students in grades six through eight, a network spokesperson said.

By closing the school, “we are ensuring students have access to well-resourced schools that offer the broad and robust programming that all students deserve,” STRIVE Prep said in a letter. “This will also allow us to better meet staffing challenges and concentrate resources to build out academic, social, extracurricular, and student support programs and services.”

Last year, 84% of STRIVE Prep - Lake students were Hispanic, 6% were Black, and 4% were white. Nearly all students — 93% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, and more school closures are likely. Superintendent Alex Marrero has said the school board will vote next month on recommendations for closing underenrolled elementary and middle schools.

The STRIVE Prep closure is separate in that the network is voluntarily closing the school. It will be the 12th Denver charter school — and the second STRIVE Prep — to close in the past four years. In 2020, STRIVE Prep closed its Excel high school due to declining enrollment.

STRIVE Prep - Excel was co-located with a district-run school, North High School. Similarly, STRIVE Prep - Lake is co-located with district-run Lake Middle School.

STRIVE Prep has a total of 10 schools, including STRIVE Prep - Lake. The network is describing the Lake closure as a consolidation in that the school’s sixth and seventh graders could transfer next year to one of the network’s four other nearby middle schools.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner middle school is about four miles south of the network’s Lake school, and STRIVE - Prep Sunnyside middle school is about four miles north. Students could also choose to attend a school outside the STRIVE network.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

These Denver school board members lived through school closures. Now they’ll be voting on them.

2022-10-19T23:26:38+00:00

Denver school board members soon will be faced with the often gut-wrenching — and politically unpopular — decision of whether to close schools. It’s a decision that a majority of the seven members have faced before as teachers, parents, and students.

But this time, they’re on the other side.

Denver’s enrollment is declining, and some schools have so few students, and so little per-pupil funding, that Superintendent Alex Marrero said the schools can no longer offer the robust programming students deserve. A committee has recommended Denver close elementary and middle schools with fewer than 215 students, as well as those with fewer than 275 students that expect to lose 8% to 10% more students in the next few years.

Marrero said he plans to make recommendations soon for which schools should be closed. The board is expected to vote on those recommendations next month.

But board members have expressed hesitation about closing schools. For some, that reluctance comes from their own experiences — which galvanized them to get more involved in district politics and eventually run for the board.

We spoke to four of the seven board members about their experiences and how that shaped how they think about school closure. Here’s what they said.

Carrie Olson

As a teacher at Kepner Middle School, now-school board member Carrie Olson took students on educational trips abroad. In this 2007 photo, she helps student Eloy Arguello make a scrapbook of his travels to London, Amsterdam, and Paris.

Olson was a teacher at Kepner Middle School in 2014 when the district announced it was closing the southwest Denver school due to low test scores.

“I didn’t feel seen or heard before the decision was made — or really, after,” she said.

Olson was a veteran educator, having started as a bilingual teacher in the district in 1985. She taught electives and literacy intervention at Kepner, working with a population where 60% of students were English language learners, 95% were Latino or Black, and nearly 100% qualified for subsidized school meals, an indicator of low family income.

In addition to teaching, Olson took students on educational trips to Washington, D.C., and Europe, life-changing experiences that became the subject of her doctoral dissertation.

Though Kepner students struggled with standardized tests, Olson said the school was more than its scores. She was shocked when district officials called a meeting to say they were “phasing out” Kepner — a euphemism for closure that meant the school would close one grade at a time — and phasing in other programs they hoped would do better.

Olson and some of her colleagues put together a proposal for a dual-language school that would celebrate students’ strengths and continue the educational trips. But the district rejected it. Instead, the school board chose a charter school and a new district-run school to take over.

“That whole competitive nature was so traumatizing to us,” Olson said. “We were all part of the community and so ingrained with the families and students.

“It felt like people downtown didn’t understand how this decision would fragment the community,” she said, referring to the decision makers at district headquarters.

The experience was one of several that pushed Olson to run for school board in 2017. She said she’s skeptical of school closures, and if the district is going to do it again, she wants the process to centralize the voices of students and families, and provide support to traumatized teachers beyond advice to do yoga and take bubble baths.

When she talks to her former colleagues about the closure, Olson said they often end up crying.

“The students felt like, ‘I’m not enough,’” Olson said. “Families would say, ‘We thought we had the best teachers in the city.’ I carry the students and the families and staff at Kepner in my heart always. I think about what was done to us and not with us.”

Michelle Quattlebaum

In this 2009 photo, Smiley Middle School sixth-grader Lanise Hopkins watches a speech in class by then-President Barack Obama. School board member Michelle Quattlebaum’s three children (not pictured) attended Smiley.

Quattlebaum’s family had a long history with Smiley Middle School by the time her youngest son was attending a decade ago. Her two older children had gone to Smiley, as had her husband.

In late 2012, the school board voted to phase out the northeast Denver school due to low test scores and lagging enrollment. But the enrollment was partly the district’s doing: Four years earlier, the board had co-located a charter school in the building, leaving Smiley with less space.

In 2013, the board made another controversial decision: To move the growing McAuliffe International School, which served a mostly white and affluent population, into the phasing-out Smiley, where most students were Black and Latino and from low-income families.

Quattlebaum fought against the Smiley closure, which she said families didn’t learn about until right before the vote. The process, she said, “didn’t feel good.” The one bright spot, she said, was when former school board member Happy Haynes came to talk to families.

“There were accusations thrown out, and her interaction was not to diminish or dismiss our very real feelings, but it was to actually listen to us,” Quattlebaum said. Had she not, Quattlebaum said, “the closure would have looked very different and felt even worse than it did.”

The district also helped the school throw a carnival, an event Smiley had held back when Quattlebaum’s husband was a student but which it couldn’t afford in recent years.

“It helped because tradition was being honored,” she said.

School closures didn’t galvanize Quattlebaum to run for a seat on the school board, which she won last year. But she said her first instinct is to oppose closures, even if she understands that may not always be realistic.

“If you have a school that normally provides services to 200 students and now only has 20 students, I’m that person saying, ‘Keep it open! Keep it open!’” she said. If that’s not possible, she said, “let’s try to come up with other alternatives to closing a school. What can that look like? I don’t know. But I understand the complexity of it.”

Quattlebaum’s own middle school, Gove, closed in 2005 and is now a parking lot.

“Every time I drive by there and somebody is in the car with me, I’m like, ‘That used to be my middle school!’” she said. “It impacts you.”

Auon’tai Anderson

In this 2014 photo, three students walk by a school bus outside Manual High School. School board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson (not pictured) attended Manual.

Anderson’s experience with school closure was not as a parent or teacher, but as a student whose school was still grappling with a past closure and the threat of a new one.

Anderson attended Manual High School from 2015 to 2017, about a decade after the northeast Denver school with a proud history and a list of high-profile alumni was closed in 2006. The district reopened Manual a year later with a new leader and a new vision, but frequent changes made the next several years rockier than district leaders had hoped.

Anderson was drawn to Manual, where nearly all students are Black or Latino, by its JROTC program. He also became a student leader, and it was through that position that he learned the district was co-locating another McAuliffe middle school at Manual.

He and other student leaders met with school board members, including Haynes. He remembers asking why Manual students weren’t consulted about the co-location.

“I stood up and I asked, ‘Where was the student voice in this decision?’” he said.

Haynes, he said, answered by saying something like, “If you want to be on the school board, you can run and win like the rest of us.” Anderson said that motivated him to run for the board in 2017, when he was still a teenager. He lost that race but ran again in 2019 and won.

Anderson said he saw the move to co-locate a middle school at Manual — and other previous proposals to chip away at Manual’s space or programming — as threats to the school’s future. Students also couldn’t escape Manual’s past. On sports teams, he said, Manual students were taunted by other players who’d say things like, “At least my school didn’t close.”

Because of his experience, Anderson said he opposes school closures. He said he’s struggling with the prospect of having to vote on the superintendent’s recommendations.

“If I choose to run for re-election or a different political office, I don’t want to have the stain of a school closure on my record because I know how traumatic it is for families,” he said. “I recognize that enrollment is declining, but I haven’t given up hope that there’s another solution out there.”

Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán

In this 2004 photo, Sydney Rees-Rice’s sixth grade class at Kunsmiller Middle School playfully reach for a decorative apple. Kunsmiller closed before school board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán’s oldest son could attend.

Fifteen years ago, when Gaytán’s oldest son was in fifth grade, she and her husband got a letter from the district. It said that their neighborhood middle school, Kunsmiller, where they were planning to send their son the following year, was closing.

Kunsmiller, where 88% of students were Hispanic and 93% qualified for subsidized meals, had low test scores, and the district was planning to transform it into an arts magnet school.

The letter came with a list of other middle schools that the fifth-graders could attend, Gaytán said. But none were near their southwest Denver neighborhood.

“It was so abrupt that it felt that parents and families were left scrambling to figure out what’s next,” Gaytán said. “It became one of those traumatic events that leaves families with shock and sadness for something you have no control over.”

Gaytán and her husband were both working, and they rearranged their schedules so they could drive their son across the city to Morey Middle School, where he made new lifelong friends. But Gaytán said it also robbed him of connections closer to home.

“You’re living a momentary trauma, but it also leaves aftereffects that break up communities and neighborhoods,” she said, “which left me questioning what was happening in Denver Public Schools and why decisions were made the way they were.”

The experience, Gaytán said, caused her to become more involved in Denver Public Schools and eventually run for a seat on the school board, which she won last year.

Gaytán said she’s open to the idea of consolidating schools with low enrollment to ensure all schools can offer robust programming. She’s concerned that some Denver elementary schools don’t have enough students to offer bilingual programming or hire full-time nurses.

But she said she wants the district to approach school closures differently than it has in the past — in a thoughtful way that takes families’ needs for transportation and mental health support into account, and “that will bring schools and communities together, not break them apart.”

“My hope is that because we have a board of individuals that have experienced this already, that we’re helping the district follow through in a very different way than how it was done back then.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Ahead of school closures, 5 takeaways about the number of schools and students in Denver

2022-10-18T14:37:00+00:00

A decade ago, Denver Public Schools was opening new schools at a rapid pace as enrollment in Colorado’s largest school district continued to climb. But school openings far outpaced the growth in enrollment, a Chalkbeat analysis found.

Now, enrollment is dropping and Denver is considering closing some elementary schools.

Superintendent Alex Marrero says some schools have gotten too small to offer robust programming. Marrero hasn’t yet announced which schools he will recommend for closure, but he said the school board is expected to vote on the recommendations next month.

With those difficult decisions looming, Chalkbeat took a look at how the number of students in Denver Public Schools — and the number of schools — have changed over time.

Both enrollment fluctuations and the philosophy of school reform contributed to why Denver opened and closed so many schools in the past 20 years. School reform calls for closing and replacing struggling schools in the hopes that the new schools will do better.

Denver was also friendly to new charter schools, sharing tax revenue and school buildings and encouraging high-performing charter networks to expand. But charter schools have also closed at a higher rate than district-run schools, often of their own volition.

In the past few years, new school board members have steered the district in a different direction, away from reform and school closures. But they’re now being forced to confront the possibility of consolidating small schools, effectively shuttering some.

Here are five takeaways from Chalkbeat’s analysis of student enrollment data and school openings and closings between the 2001-02 and 2021-22 school years.

Denver added schools faster than students

Over the past 20 years, Denver Public Schools has added a lot of schools. It has added students, too — but at a much slower rate.

The number of public schools in Denver grew 55% between the 2001-02 and 2021-22 school years, while the number of students grew just 12%.

Denver went from having 132 schools serving about 72,000 students in 2001-02 to 204 schools serving nearly 89,000 students in 2021-22.

The same trend holds true for elementary schools, where the superintendent has said closures are imminent. The number of elementary schools in Denver grew 23% over the past 20 years, while the number of students grew just 4%.

Denver’s school-to-student ratio is shrinking

Because of that uneven growth, Denver’s ratio of schools to students has shrunk.

In 2001-02, Denver had one school for every 545 students. In 2021-22, it had one school for every 435 students. That has led to a rise in the number of small schools, or schools with so few students that they struggle to operate on their per-pupil funding.

At the elementary level, Denver had one school for every 396 students in 2001-02. Twenty years later, it had one elementary school for every 335 students.

Denver officials have said the district struggles to maintain robust programming at elementary schools with fewer than 300 students. A committee has recommended Denver shutter elementary schools that have fewer than 275 students and expect to lose even more.

New schools were both district-run and charter

The openings of both new district-run and charter schools helped drive the increase in the number of schools in Denver over the past 20 years.

Between 2001-02 and 2021-22, Denver opened 72 new charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, and 70 new district-run schools.

Some were new schools. Others were efforts to restart existing schools with new names and new programming in an attempt to boost test scores.

At the elementary level, Denver opened 20 new charter schools between 2001-02 and 2021-22, most of them new schools in growing parts of the city or offering unique programming. It also opened 33 new district-run schools, though more than a third were restarts of existing schools, such as the transition of Ford Elementary to DCIS at Ford.

But charter schools grew at a faster rate

The number of new district-run and charter schools was nearly equal, but the rate at which each type of school grew was vastly different. While district-run schools saw steady, modest growth, charter school growth skyrocketed over the past 20 years.

That’s partly because charter schools were a fairly new concept in 2001. Colorado passed the law authorizing them in 1993, and Denver didn’t get its first charter school — P.S. 1 — until 1995.

By 2001-02, Denver had eight charter schools, which made up 6% of all schools. Twenty years later, Denver had 57 charters, which accounted for 28% of all schools.

Meanwhile, the number of district-run schools went from 124 in 2001-02 to 147 in 2021-22. Their proportion of all schools shrank from 93% to 72%.

At the elementary level, charter schools accounted for 5% of all Denver elementary schools in 2001-02. Twenty years later, they accounted for 18%.

Charters also closed at a higher rate

Denver charters have also closed at a higher rate than district-run schools. Twenty-two charter schools closed between 2001-02 and 2021-22. That’s about 27% of all charter schools that existed in Denver at any time during those 20 years.

Some of those 22 charter schools closed voluntarily, meaning the charter school’s own board of directors voted to close the school. In other cases, the Denver school board didn’t renew a school’s charter, often because of low test scores.

Four of the 22 closed charters were elementary schools that closed for good, meaning they didn’t immediately reopen with a new name and new programming.

In that same time period, the Denver school board voted to close 38 district-run schools because of low test scores or low enrollment. That’s about 20% of all district-run schools that existed in Denver at any time over those 20 years.

Twelve of the 38 closed district-run schools were elementary schools that closed for good.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Parents share advice on what helped their kids during past school closures

2022-09-12T11:06:00+00:00

Leer en español.

Lending an ear, being patient with kids’ emotions, and ensuring kids don’t feel they’re at fault: Offering support like that will help children cope with school closures, according to Jeffco parents who have already been through them.

“I was trying to let him know, ‘we know you don’t like change but this new school is going to become home,’” Jamie Camp said she told her third grader as his school, Fitzmorris Elementary, faced closure in spring 2021 and he would have to move to a new school. “Be patient. They’re going to lash out. Our son did. That’s just them trying to process.”

The Jeffco school district is preparing to help thousands of students say goodbye to their elementary schools at the end of this school year. The board in November is expected to approve a recommendation to close 16 schools, nearly one in five of its elementaries.

In the past two years, the district suddenly closed two small elementary schools that leaders said were no longer sustainable. Now, in a more comprehensive plan, district leaders want to provide more advance notice as they reduce the number of small schools.

Chalkbeat talked to parents of children who attended the two previously closed schools about what worked, what didn’t work, and what advice they had for families facing closures now. Below read their thoughts, and answers to questions on parents’ minds.

Why does the district close schools?

Where will students go?

Any advice on how to say goodbye and then prepare for a new school?

What was difficult in the transition and how can parents manage challenges?

What were some of the positive things about moving to a new school?

Why does the district close schools?

Jeffco, like many other districts, has had fewer and fewer students for many years. That has left many schools with very few students. School districts, and in turn schools, get state funding based on enrollment. Most of the schools recommended for closure have either fewer than 220 students or use less than 45% of their building’s space. The district says it provides these schools more money than their per-student allocation, but they still can’t offer the same programs that bigger schools with more students can afford.

Where will students go?

For every school that is closing, the district has designated another to cover its attendance boundary area and become the new neighborhood school. But Colorado law allows parents to choose other schools, too. Jeffco opens choice enrollment in December for parents wanting to enroll outside their neighborhood.

Rosa Melaragno’s son attended Allendale Elementary until it closed in 2021. Instead of sending him to the district’s suggested school, she chose to send him to Fitzmorris Elementary because it was closer to her home. In the spring, the district closed that school too. Now she believes going with the district’s recommendation would be a safer idea.

“Even if you think it’s going to suck, it might be better for the child in the long run,” Melaragno said.

Other parents who did send their children to the district’s suggested school said they did so because they saw other benefits. Some of their teachers moved to the same school. Others wanted their children to have more familiar classmates or benefit from district support measures for the transferred students.

Lara Wiant, the principal of Campbell Elementary, said that when she took in students from Allendale, she created and assigned student ambassadors to every displaced student to help them navigate the school and to have someone to sit with at lunch.

Christopher Benisch, the principal of Lawrence Elementary School, which received many of the Fitzmorris students, said he designed this year’s classrooms so that every former Fitzmorris student had at least one former classmate in their room this year.

Benisch suggested that as parents look at their choices, they think about what opportunities they want for their children, and they take time to learn about what different programs schools offer. That means asking things like do schools have after-school programs, STEM labs, full-day preschool, or mental health supports?

Any advice on how to say goodbye and then prepare for a new school?

When Fitzmorris was closing, the school hosted a barbecue and invited staff from Lawrence, the school that would be receiving most of Fitzmorris’ students.

Parents say that was helpful for saying goodbye to their community. But looking back, some wish they could have had an opportunity to also meet families of the school they were going to.

And Michelle Miley, whose son was at Fitzmorris but went to Stott Elementary, following his center program for students with autism, wishes that events like that had included families like hers.

This year, as in the past, the district will move students in many of the center programs at closing schools to different receiving schools from the general education students. The district says that’s in part because of space issues. The district is trying to offer stability for those students by moving program staff with the students.

But for children like Miley’s son, who spent about three-quarters of his school day in general education classrooms, getting split away from those students made the family feel left out.

As her son started school this fall, she felt like neither he nor the family knew anyone.

“I feel like I was just kind of thrown in,” Miley said. “Now I hope they try to get the school communities together before schools close. Just to get people more familiar with each other.”

One thing many parents say they’ve found helpful for their children is visiting school playgrounds.

Maureen Bricker cares for her two granddaughters, a fourth and a first grader, who both were displaced from Fitzmorris Elementary. After the school closed, Bricker arranged for the girls to play with other former classmates at their old playground a couple of times.

“I thought let’s let them play like old times, and we’ll do that again as long as it’s open,” Bricker said.

Melaragno said she tried to arrange a play date over the summer for her son, who takes a long time to warm up to people, but got no responses. She thinks it might have helped if the district helped facilitate that.

So she packed a lunch and took her son to his new school over the summer and let him play on the new playground.

“It was just to let him get physically familiar with the school, let him scope it out,” Melaragno said. “Even getting used to the drive and looking at the landmarks. It’s just about taking the time with him.”

What was difficult in the transition and how can parents manage challenges?

Parents said they struggled to adjust to drastically different start times, and much busier drop-off and pickup locations. Parents hope that with more time to plan, school leaders can reduce the stress around those changes.

Parents said one of the most helpful things was clear communication with their kids and letting them know that it’s not their fault they have to change schools.

Melaragno said her husband noticed that their son had felt like he was to blame for having two of his schools shut down.

“Take the lead in explaining to the kids it’s not their fault,” both the Melaragnos said. “Especially those who may not be forthright about their feelings. My son is like that. If he’s sad about something, sometimes he’ll cry but then he’s like ‘I’m fine,’ even though he’s not.”

Camp said her son felt like his parents didn’t try to save his school. She said she hasn’t figured out how parents might let their kids feel like they advocated for them, while acknowledging that nothing parents could do now will stop the coming closures.

Above all, she said, parents need to listen to what their kids need and feel.

What were some of the positive things about moving to a new school?

Many parents said that they did experience benefits at the new schools in various cases including more friends, more varied programs, more appropriate class sizes.

Miley’s son was in a combined classroom that had more than 30 students at Fitzmorris. At the new school, there’s funding for two teachers so that each classroom is split into about 18 students.

Melaragno’s son had been one of just two boys in his grade at his previous school. Now he has lots more boys to interact and learn with.

Parents also say asking for help is important.

As an example, Bricker said that one day last month when her younger granddaughter was having a tough morning, crying and not wanting to go into her new school, she asked the school to send its social and emotional learning specialist to check on her. It also helped that the specialist had known the girl from working at Fitzmorris before the school closed.

“Just try to stay positive for them,” she said. “And ask for help.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco recommends closing 16 elementary schools

2022-08-25T23:00:00+00:00

Update: The Jeffco school board on Thursday voted unanimously to approve Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s recommendation to close 16 elementary schools at the end of this school year. Read the most current story here.

Jeffco has selected 16 elementary schools to recommend closing at the end of this school year.

All the schools have fewer students than they did a few years ago, and all but one had fewer than 220 students as of Aug. 15. All but one of the schools have a higher percentage than the district average of students from low-income families.

The district announced its recommendations Thursday and the school board will vote on the recommendations as a package on Nov. 10.

In the meantime, the district will host community listening sessions, but has made clear that the goal isn’t to hear which communities can best persuade the board to save their schools, but rather to talk about what families want to see in their new schools.

“I really am hopeful that our community will shift from wanting to fight the decision to wanting to be partners with us,” Jeffco Superintendent Tracy Dorland said.

In total, the district said the closures will displace almost 2,600 students and affect the equivalent of about 422 full-time jobs. The student numbers include the children of 27 families displaced when Allendale and Fitzmorris elementary schools closed in the past two years and who again will have to relocate. The district is assigning staff to work directly with those families.

Each of the schools identified Wednesday has fewer than 220 students, excluding preschool students, or uses less than 45% of their building’s capacity. And each of them is located less than 3.5 miles from another school with the capacity to absorb their students and still feed to the same middle and high schools.

So, along with every school proposed for closure, the district has named a nearby school that will absorb the boundary area and students of the closing school. In some cases, a third school will receive displaced students from programs for children with specific disabilities. All together, the closures will directly affect 38 schools, nearly half of the district’s 84 district-run elementary schools.

As far as staff, the district will help place teachers who are non-probationary, and will offer help to all others. For certified staff, the district is also offering to pay for them to get endorsements in hard-to-staff areas to make them more competitive for positions the following school year.

As before, parents may apply to enroll their children in schools other than the one assigned them.

District leaders want disappointed families to think of the transition as an opportunity for school communities to reshape the receiving schools to welcome new students and serve them and their families.

If the school board approves the closures, the district will form committees at each school to hear ideas from families and staff.

In the case of Emory Elementary, the principal already has pushed for its dual language program to move to Lasley, which is absorbing Emory students, though the type of dual language model could change.

Even if approved, the school closures will leave the district with 16 schools with fewer than 250 students or less than 60% of a building in use in 2023-24. That’s one-third the current number of schools that fit that criteria.

The district expects savings of up to $12 million may help reduce its budget deficit. This year, the district is drawing $28 million from its reserves to cover expenses.

The district has used $16.3 million from its 2018 bond to upgrade schools now identified for closure, but more recently put on hold $12.2 million in projects planned for small schools.

District says small schools are affecting learning opportunities

Still, district leaders have emphasized that closures aren’t just about the money, but about the quality of learning.

“We knew we were spending more money to support our small schools, but the amount of money is not leading to more robust programming,” Dorland said.

Lisa Mahannah, principal of Emory Elementary School, said that the recommendation to close her school didn’t surprise her, but was still hard to hear. The district has named principals who will lead the receiving schools. In Emory’s case, Mahannah’s assistant principal will move with the students, but not Mahannah.

Still, she said she’s had time to say her piece and knows that the district isn’t making these decisions lightly, so she’s focused on helping her families understand. She’s also a parent of a high school student in the district.

“This is impactful for everyone,” Mahannah said.

At Emory, with declining enrollment, she can’t provide everything her students need.

The school has students in dual language programming and students in English programming. But Mahannah said the school has been unable to pay for bilingual mental health or special education staff.

“The budget really drives how much support you are going to have for students,” Mahannah said.

And as dual language enrollment has decreased, classes split between two teachers per grade level have become smaller, while non-bilingual classes may have up to 30 students.

Emory has about 385 students on a former middle school campus with capacity to hold nearly 900 students.

Now, she plans to work the school year with Lauren LeMarinel, principal of Lasley Elementary, to plan how the merged campuses can serve students.

Lasley, about a mile from Emory, has about 291 students and uses about half of its school building.

As Lasley enrollment has declined, LeMarinel said, it has had fewer resources for students. Lasley shares art, music, and physical education teachers with three other schools. And this year, Lasley lost its after-school care program run by the Boys & Girls Club, which needed more students to support its work. The group decided to operate at just one school, Emory, in the region.

LeMarinel and Mahannah plan to ask if Lasley may bus students to Emory to participate in the after-school programming, as the two schools work on merging their support for students. They plan to find ways to share other partnerships too.

“We will do our best to make sure our community understands and we grow together as one,” LeMarinel said.

Enrollment was top of mind as Dorland took the job

A year and a half ago, Dorland had scant time to ease into her job. The board approved her contract in the same meeting right after discussing an emergency measure to close Allendale with little notice, because its dwindling student body made the school unsustainable.

Dorland immediately began examining enrollment and other problems behind abrupt closures.

“I was extremely concerned and shocked,” Dorland said. “I knew we had some issues. I had no idea the magnitude of the issue.”

Since 2017-18, the district’s total enrollment dropped more than 8% to about 78,473 last school year. At just district-run schools, the decline has been faster, about 11%. From 2019 to now, the district estimates it lost about 5,000 students.

While families sending their children to charter schools or other districts may play a small role, the major driver of falling enrollment is the decline in the number of school-age children in the county and the declining birth rate.

“We are very concerned that if we do not take action at this scope, we run the risk of having emergency closures in the next couple of years,” Dorland said. “It also leaves small school communities in a place of fear and anxiety wondering if they’re going to be next. We need to not be in a place of fear and anxiety.”

Dorland wants the district to address the enrollment challenges so that schools can focus on accelerating student learning and have more resources to do that.

Next steps include a look at secondary schools

After the vote in November, the district will begin examining enrollment and capacity at secondary schools, and possibly identify some for closure in the coming years. The district also is working on reevaluating the formula it uses to fund schools. Leaders want to hire experts to examine attendance boundaries and feeder patterns for elementary schools to middle and high schools.

Staff, like families throughout Jeffco, have experienced school closures in the past.

In Arvada, Principal Lara Wiant offered ideas on integrating campuses. Her school, Campbell, recently received students from Allendale and Fitzmorris when those schools closed.

She created a student ambassador program pairing each new student with a Campbell classmate who would offer a tour of the school, tips about who to go to for help, and who could sit with them during lunch.

Tara Peña, the district’s chief of family, school, and community partnerships, was an assistant principal of a school in Arvada that closed in 2010. She learned about her school’s closure at the same board meeting when her students and families heard the news.

She keeps that bad experience in mind as she helps the district shape its engagement and communication to families and staff that are affected. This year, principals were informed a few days ahead of everyone else, and instructional superintendents are helping them be prepared to support students and staff when they learn the news.

Mahannah said as a principal, she primarily wants parents to know that despite everything, her teachers are already working hard with students two weeks into the school year, and that won’t change. Just as most teachers worked through the difficulties of the pandemic, they will now too, she said.

“We’re going to go through a grieving process, but we’re going to show up every day,” Mahannah said. “Our teachers are amazing. They’re going to show up.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Community feedback won’t stop school closures in Jeffco

2022-07-28T00:57:10+00:00

As they start down a path toward school closures, Jeffco leaders say they want to hear from the community. But the feedback they gather will not save schools.

“I do believe in authentic community engagement,” Superintendent Tracy Dorland said at a Tuesday board meeting. “I also believe in courageous leadership that doesn’t pretend people have a choice when they don’t.”

District leaders have hired a consultant to help them understand what support families need to get through the closure process and move to new schools. The feedback the consultant gathers won’t stop schools from closing, Dorland and board members said.

Dorland said that if the district wishes to avoid school closures with little warning to parents, as Jeffco has done for the past two years, then it has run out of time.

“We don’t have the luxury of time,” Dorland said. For too long, she said, the district has avoided difficult decisions and long-term planning to address declining enrollment. Having discussions with every community “could take us another decade,” she said.

While leaders said they haven’t decided which schools to close, they are firm about schools having to close.

Dorland plans to present her recommendations on which schools to close at the end of August, and the board will vote in November. The district contracted with Keystone Policy Center to run the community engagement process before that vote.

School districts around the metro area and across the country are struggling with how to downsize as enrollments drop. The high cost of living in cities, a lower birth rate, and school choice are all likely contributing to public schools enrolling fewer students, and thus receiving fewer dollars.

Districts in Colorado have taken various approaches to community engagement, but still can’t avoid the backlash from people who feel unheard when their schools are closed.

In Aurora, the district began outreach years ago asking families, staff, and neighbors to share what they wanted most from their schools. The district used that information to consider many factors when picking a school for closure, looking across what’s best for a region.

But in the most recent round of school closures, parents of one school said they weren’t aware of that process until their school was recommended for closure, and they didn’t understand why their school was picked. Their pressure saved the school initially, but two months later, the board voted to close the schools anyway.

In Denver, the school district started down multiple paths last school year. After the district identified 19 schools as underenrolled, regional groups were going to make recommendations. Superintendent Alex Marrero paused that process and instead created a single committee that recommended criteria for closing small schools.

Throughout the process, parents and others have complained community engagement has fallen short.

Often, critics say communities already hard hit by poverty and other issues are the most likely to face closures. Those communities are also underrepresented among district leadership and are the hardest to reach through standard outreach approaches. That means those who are most affected have the least say.

Jeffco’s plan, somewhat more similar to Aurora’s, will consider multiple factors. And the district has not created strict cutoffs for enrollment or building usage that are too low, to alert a community that their school might be at risk of closure.

Instead, the district has listed those two factors as primary considerations, but also will look at how a school closure would impact an area, including where displaced students would go and where center programs for students with disabilities could be relocated.

“As a parent I see my child’s school, my child’s involvement, my child’s teacher,” said board member Paula Reed. But she said parents don’t know everything the district is considering, for example, about factors like special education centers or how transportation would work.

“We just need to be able to say to people you don’t have all the pieces. We do have people who are paid really well because they have expertise in this and we’re going to listen to those voices, but you are the experts on your community so we want to hear from you about how we can make this work in your community.”

Board member Susan Miller is concerned that the district isn’t looking broadly enough if it’s not looking at the regional feeder systems that send elementary students to certain middle and high schools, known in Jeffco as articulation areas.

District leaders say they’ll look at secondary school enrollment trends and possible closures starting with posting data on each of those schools in January.

Board member Reed said the board needs to be united so that the community can receive a clear message about what to expect.

“What we’re talking about is having genuine and authentic input into how this is accomplished and if your community is impacted, what do you need — not what do you want because you don’t always get what you want,” Reed said. “But as Mick Jagger wisely told us, if you try sometimes, you just might find that you get what you need.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

5 takeaways from the data that will shape Jeffco school closure decisions

2022-07-22T16:36:22+00:00

Leer en español.

More than half of Jeffco elementary schools are losing students, a change that’s leading to higher costs to educate those who remain and forcing schools to combine classrooms and make other compromises.

That’s according to school-level data published by Jeffco Public Schools as board members kick off a conversation about one of the hardest decisions they face: which schools to close or consolidate.

Jeffco has been dealing with declining enrollment for years, and like many other metro area districts is closing small schools. Citing an emergency caused by critically low enrollment, the district closed two schools in the past two years, giving little notice to parents. Now Jeffco is trying to think further ahead.

The school board asked administrators to compile statistics about all elementary schools, to look at factors beyond school size. Board members plan to discuss the report Tuesday.

So far, district leaders have said they plan to use enrollment and building utilization, or how much of its space is actively used, as the main factors in deciding which schools to close.

School board members have wondered about considering other factors such as student demographics, whether the school has combined, mixed-grade classrooms, or whether the building is used a lot by the community for other purposes.

Superintendent Tracy Dorland is expected to present recommendations for school closures to the board at the end of August.

Chalkbeat analyzed data the district published online last month on each of the 84 district-run elementary schools.

Here are some key takeaways.

1. More than a dozen schools use less than 60% of their building capacity and are also expected to serve fewer than 250 students next year.

Of 84 elementary schools, 30 are projected to have fewer than 250 students this fall. Of those, 16 already use less than 60% of their building’s capacity.

The district’s public dashboard includes preschool students in calculating how much of a building is used but doesn’t include preschool students in the enrollment number. The enrollment number is based just on older students. Districts get different funding for elementary and preschool students.

The 16 low-usage schools are mostly concentrated in the district’s communities that are closer to Denver. Six of the schools are in Arvada, where Jeffco already recently closed two schools. Four more are in Lakewood, and three have a Westminster address.

District leaders haven’t decided how few students or what utilization level is too low for the district to sustain.

When looking at how many schools are expected to have fewer than 200 students next school year, there are 11 schools, including eight using less than 60% of their campus: Slater, Campbell, Thomson, Colorow, Glennon Heights, Peck, Molholm, and New Classical at Vivian.

It’s likely schools with these overlapping factors face a higher risk for closure. But district leaders also have said that to provide support for families transitioning to new buildings, the district will have to limit how many schools it closes in 2023.

2. Schools with low enrollment and utilization are also more likely to have a high concentration of students living in poverty.

Besides being mostly clustered in three cities bordering Denver, another factor that defines the schools with low enrollment and low utilization is having higher portions of students living in poverty. The 16 low-usage schools have an average of 50% of their students from low-income families, as defined by qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. At schools with higher enrollment and utilization rates, the average student body includes just 23% qualifying as low income.

3. More Jeffco elementary schools will lose rather than gain students.

Overall, Jeffco expects elementary school enrollment to remain steady in the fall, with just a one-student increase. But change will vary among schools.

Projections show enrollment declining at 43 of 84 schools. Of those, more than two-thirds are expected to lose more than 10 students.

Meanwhile, enrollment is expected to grow at 38 schools, and about two-thirds of them will gain more than 10 students.

The gain or loss of even a few students can greatly affect budgets of small schools. Losing students can make it harder to hire enough staff, manage classroom size, and offer specialized programming, all factors that affect the quality of education.

4. Thirty-seven elementary schools have higher-than-average per-student costs.

District spending per elementary student ranges from $13,870 at Kyffin Elementary which had 441 students last school year, to $19,197 at Thompson Elementary which had 194 students.

The district gives money to schools based on enrollment and a few other factors including how many students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Schools with too few students can’t cover their costs and must get additional money from the district.

Jeffco leaders have said school closures aren’t just about saving money, but also about providing an equitable and robust education at every school.

Schools that cost more to run and still lack the programs that other schools offer are less sustainable. The district this year has hired a consultant to audit how the district allocates dollars to schools to re-examine student-based budgeting.

5. Sixteen schools are projected to have more combined classrooms next year.

In discussing how they believed education has suffered at schools they closed because of too few students in the past two years, Jeffco leaders pointed to classes combining two grades.

That burdens the teacher and diminishes student learning, they said, in part because teachers didn’t have grade-level colleagues to plan, train, or discuss with.

Last school year, the district had 53 classrooms combining multiple grade levels. Next year, the district expects to have 72 combination classes. Just four of the schools using combined classrooms in 2021-22 expect to be able to eliminate them in the fall.

There are 16 elementary schools that expect to have an increase in the use of these classrooms, including six schools where they haven’t been used in the previous year.

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Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver bilingual programs face a threat: not enough students

2022-07-12T11:58:00+00:00

Leer en español.

On the first day of summer school in Denver, six incoming first graders took a spelling test. Using long pencils with unsmudged erasers, they spelled noche, jugo, pequeño, and vecino.

“Número tres es la palabra — es un poco larga — ‘pequeño,’” the teacher said, warning the students that the third word she wanted them to spell, the Spanish word for “small,” was a bit long.

A girl with glasses and an oversized pink bow looked down at her paper and sounded it out.

“P–p-p-pequeño,” she whispered to herself as she wrote a “p” next to No. 3.

Because the 6- and 7-year-olds are enrolled in Denver Public Schools’ bilingual education program, they learn spelling, reading, and math in Spanish. As they build core academic skills, they also learn English, and over time transition to learning less and less in Spanish.

Denver parents and educators fought for this kind of bilingual programming — known as transitional native language instruction or TNLI — and a federal court order requires the district to offer it at every school with at least 60 students who speak Spanish and are learning English.

But Denver’s bilingual programming faces a big threat: too few students at a growing number of schools.

High housing costs and falling birth rates are driving down public school enrollment, especially in Denver’s historically Latino neighborhoods. That makes it harder for elementary schools to fill bilingual classrooms, and educators are making compromises, like combining two grades into one classroom, that don’t work as well for students. The district already moved to shut down four small TNLI — pronounced “tin-lee” — programs earlier this year before backing off.

The district is also considering closing some schools altogether. More than half of the schools that meet recommended criteria for potential closure house TNLI programs. The 15 schools account for nearly a quarter of the district’s 65 schools with bilingual classrooms.

Consolidating schools might allow for more robust programming, but that carries its own cost.

“This school is part of our community,” Yuridia Rebolledo-Duran, a mother of two Colfax Elementary students, said in Spanish at an April rally outside the threatened school. “It is very important for us as parents that our children can speak two languages.”

Parents and teachers fought for bilingual education

Research largely supports the efficacy of bilingual education. In Denver, English language learners who become fluent in English have historically done well on state standardized tests. Denver’s top school administrators support it, too.

“We are very sad by the fact that declining enrollment is impacting our bilingual schools,” said Nadia Madan Morrow, a former bilingual teacher who led the district’s multilingual education department until being promoted recently to chief academic officer. “We’re working hard to figure out how to deliver native language instruction in schools that are continually shrinking.”

But that wasn’t always the case.

Kalyah Rodriguez, who was in kindergarten at Colfax Elementary School in Denver last year, rallies outside the school with her mom Edlyn Rodriguez in April. Kalyah is holding a sign that says, “Ser Bilingüe Es Mi Superpoder,” which means “Being Bilingual is my Superpower.”

Some educators used to punish students who spoke Spanish in class, a practice that led to fierce protests. In 1980, a local group called the Congress of Hispanic Educators sued the district for violating the rights of English language learners.

A federal judge found the district at fault. In 1984, Denver entered into its first consent decree, a legally binding agreement to provide bilingual education. It has been modified twice since.

The most recent version, in effect since 2013, says the district must provide TNLI programming at schools with more than 60 Spanish-speaking English language learners, employ qualified bilingual teachers, and use high-quality Spanish-language curriculum and tests.

“Our bilingual parents want their children to end up being bilingual,” said Kathy Escamilla, a member of the Congress of Hispanic Educators who is a retired University of Colorado professor and researcher of bilingual education. “They want the opportunity for their culture and history to be represented.”

The consent decree applies to only Spanish-speaking students, who make up the largest portion of Denver’s English language learners. Other English language learners are taught entirely in English, sometimes with the help of teachers or tutors who speak their language. Arabic and Vietnamese are the second- and third-most common native languages.

The number of English language learners in Denver has gone up and down for a decade, as has the number of students enrolled in TNLI programs and the number of schools that offer them.

In the past, the district would revoke the TNLI status from any school serving fewer than 60 Spanish-speaking English language learners over a period of time, Madan Morrow said. But when the district last winter tried to do that at four elementary schools — Colfax, Cheltenham, Traylor, and Schmitt — the Congress of Hispanic Educators pushed back.

Possible school closures loom

Three of the four schools have lost so many students that they’re at risk for closure in the near future. That heightened the communities’ concerns about losing TNLI.

A year ago, the elected Denver school board passed a resolution that said parents, teachers, and others should help develop a plan to consolidate small schools. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and small schools struggle to afford things like electives and mental health staff.

The district listed 19 schools that would participate in the process. The goal was for the communities at those schools to come up with ideas for how to consolidate.

But the list caused a panic, and Superintendent Alex Marrero scrapped it.

Switching tactics, the district this year assembled a declining enrollment advisory committee and tasked it with coming up with criteria for when to close schools with low enrollment.

The committee revealed its proposed criteria last month: Elementary and middle schools with fewer than 215 students next school year, as well as schools with fewer than 275 students that expect to lose 8% to 10% of students in the coming years, should be considered for consolidation, as should financially struggling independent charter schools.

Twenty-seven district-run schools had fewer than 275 students this past year. Like the 19 schools on the original list, most of the 27 schools serve student populations that are more than 90% students of color and more than 90% from low-income households.

Fifteen of the 27 schools are TNLI schools, including Colfax Elementary, where parents and advocates held a rally in April against closing their school. Several mothers said they live close by and walk their children to school because they can’t drive.

Colfax Elementary School is one of four Denver schools that nearly lost its designation to offer “transitional native language instruction,” or TNLI, programming for Spanish-speaking English language learners this past school year due to declining enrollment.

“It worries me because how am I going to take the children to other schools?” Cecilia Sanchez-Perez, a mother of two Colfax students, said in Spanish.

Escamilla of the Congress of Hispanic Educators was at the rally, too.

“We understand that DPS is facing some difficult decisions regarding budgetary decisions and declining enrollment,” she said. However, she added, “too often these types of changes disproportionately impact Black, brown, and poor communities.”

If the district removed the TNLI designation from Colfax and the three other schools, advocates worried students could be left without bilingual programming. Even with free busing to a nearby TNLI school, families might hesitate to leave the schools they know and love.

The Congress of Hispanic Educators was also skeptical of the district’s enrollment projections and concerned that parents hadn’t been consulted, Escamilla said.

Because of the pushback, Denver agreed to keep the TNLI designation at Colfax, Cheltenham, Traylor, and Schmitt. But Madan Morrow said that the dwindling numbers of Spanish-speaking students mean programming there may not be as robust.

Fewer students leads to compromises in the classroom

Many of Denver’s TNLI schools still have healthy enrollment. But at schools without enough Spanish-speaking students in each grade, bilingual programming looks different.

What often happens, educators said, is that schools mix two grade levels in one classroom, which isn’t ideal academically or popular with parents. Or schools combine native Spanish with native English speakers, a difficult assignment for even the most veteran educators.

Kim Ursetta, who teaches bilingual preschool at Traylor, taught a combination of native English and native Spanish speakers this past year for only the second time in her 28-year career.

“It’s hard to pull off,” she said. “You’re always jumping between languages, and no matter what, you’re only getting them half of the time you’d normally have.”

If combining students isn’t possible, schools sometimes put Spanish speakers in English-only classrooms and pull them out of class to learn certain subjects in Spanish. That can leave students feeling ostracized or cause them to miss fun elective activities.

It’s something school board member Carrie Olson, who was a bilingual teacher in Denver for 33 years before being elected to the board, saw firsthand. Olson is concerned with how declining enrollment is affecting TNLI programs and has repeatedly asked that the board discuss it.

Madan Morrow said principals and district staff are working on plans for next school year.

“We know any amount of native language instruction is better than none,” she said. “What we are trying to figure out with these four schools is, ‘What is the sweet spot? How much can we give them so it’s beneficial without them being in a pullout setting all day long?’”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco school district planning multiple elementary school closures

2022-06-14T23:57:48+00:00

Leer en español.

The Jeffco school district is preparing to make recommendations this fall to close multiple elementary schools, kicking off its long-term plan to downsize its number of schools.

Jeffco district leaders say 49, or 58% of district elementary schools, currently have fewer than 250 students, and/or use less than 60% building capacity. Six elementary schools, in six different areas of the district, have fewer than 200 students, and also utilize less than 60% of their building’s capacity.

“While we have a large issue in this district, there are a few schools that are really facing dire situations with how small they are going into next school year and we must confront those,” said Lisa Relou, Jeffco’s chief of strategy and communications, who is overseeing the plan’s creation.

Jeffco, like many districts throughout the country and the metro area, has seen a steady decline in enrollment for years, which was aggravated by the pandemic. The district in 2021-22 served approximately 78,000 students, down from a peak of more than 86,700 in the fall of 2015. Districts say student populations have decreased due to lower birth rates, as well as higher costs of living in metropolitan areas pushing families out. Projections show the number of students in the next few years likely will continue to drop.

With fewer students, the district gets less money from the state, and then schools get less money from the district. While parents often value small classroom sizes, districts argue having multiple small schools is stretching resources too thin, and making for less adequate educational programming.

Jeffco leaders closed two elementary schools in the past two years, calling them emergency closures, citing problems maintaining programs, and giving little notice to parents. The district’s new plan, Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools, was launched after the closure of Fitzmorris this year as a way to try to prevent emergency closures in the spring and provide parents more notice.

The district hasn’t said how many schools will be recommended for closure in the first round of the plan. But, the district is drafting a report that will detail factors the school board wants to consider in deciding whether to close a school.

That report, to be completed by June 30 on the status of all elementary schools, will include the school’s enrollment and staffing numbers, programming, and the building’s condition, among other details.

By August 31, the superintendent will make recommendations on which elementary school to close at the end of the 2022-23 school year. The board will vote on those recommendations before the end of November.

This fall’s recommendations will be based largely on enrollment and building utilization, but other factors might play a bigger role in future decisions such as whether the school hosts a unique program or what transportation options exist if students must go elsewhere.

“The approach is still evolving,” Relou said. “They’re all things we need to look at. They are all important components, but I think some things will stick out more than other things.”

In addition to district recommendations, district leaders are also planning to support principals who are working on plans of their own to merge schools. Those voluntary school mergers could be considered at the same time.

Relou said the district wants to limit how many schools are closed in one year so that district staff can support displaced families and students.

The other issue that hasn’t been decided is whether the district at some point will create a “bright line” – a number that would trigger closure. Some school board members said that having more clear benchmarks for what is considered “too few” students, might help parents.

But having such strict rules also might remove some of a district’s ability to consider other factors.

In Jeffco, for instance, Relou has said that some school buildings were made for small student populations, meaning that while they may have few students, they may be at or above building capacity. Regardless, Jeffco school board members and leaders want the focus to be on whether schools can provide good programs.

In the case of the last two emergency closures in Jeffco, district leaders said that the schools had to combine grade levels causing teachers to deal with different standards, and sometimes different curriculum resources, for students in one class. And in those cases, teachers didn’t have co-workers to plan and collaborate with for their grade levels. Before closing, Fitzmorris school leaders also described having a hard time offering after-school programming because even private providers were reluctant to offer services for so few students.

Now Jeffco is trying to define what it takes for a school to be what the district calls “thriving.”

One measure being discussed is ensuring a school is big enough to have two to three classes per grade level, so teachers can collaborate with co-workers. District leaders also have discussed that each school needs to have full-time art, music, and physical education teachers, so that students can have those classes consistently, rather than once every few weeks as is the case in some schools with shared teachers.

Board members also told district staff they want the district to track students who have been displaced by closures, in hopes of preventing the same students from being impacted more than once.

After November, the plan’s focus will become more broad, looking at middle and high schools as well. That means looking at how elementary schools feed into secondary schools, but also considering closing schools in higher grade levels.

Jeffco leaders say that this is one of many steps needed to eventually manage the district’s budget problems.

Enrollment has decreased faster than staffing levels, Relou said. And, as the district negotiates to increase staff salaries, likely using reserves for now, the district is going to have to cut expenditures to afford higher salaries in coming years.

As the district is working on the plan for school closures, Jeffco also has hired a consultant to evaluate how it spends its dollars. The district, like most others, allocates dollars to schools based on enrollment, called student-based budgeting, which began in Jeffco in the 2015-16 school year.

The method of funding gives principals flexibility to decide how to use their budgets. But as schools have had less enrollment, the district has had to step in to help schools pay for essentials. To help do that, Jeffco created a system where, if a school has more than a set level of enrollment, those schools must give back some of their per-student funding, to subsidize schools with too few students. Superintendent Tracy Dorland said the process is causing frustration for principals, as leaders must navigate confusing funding rules.

The consultant hired by the district will analyze the district’s spending, help district staff create a new formula for student-based budgeting, and help train principals so they are better prepared for creating their school budgets.

The district also will hire a consultant to run community engagement before the November vote on closures. The district plans to form committees in each affected articulation area, but stressed that the engagement would not be focused on whether a school should or should not close, but rather on how boundaries would shift, and how to support students in a transition.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

9 charts that explain Denver’s declining enrollment challenge

2022-06-08T20:21:01+00:00

Declining enrollment is arguably the most pressing issue facing Denver Public Schools, and the district’s latest annual report takes a deep dive into current numbers and future predictions.

Fewer students means less money for the district and more challenges offering robust services. The enrollment data is especially important as the district grapples with how to close small schools.

Here are seven takeaways in nine charts from the district’s annual strategic regional analysis report. All charts are from the report.

Denver is losing the most students at the elementary level

Enrollment dropped more than 3% from 2019 to 2021 — from 93,800 students to 90,202 — and the district predicts it will drop by another 4% to about 87,200 by 2026.

Declines are steepest at the elementary school level. Elementary enrollment peaked in 2014 and has been decreasing ever since.

Middle school enrollment has begun decreasing as well, and the district predicts it will drop even more as smaller elementary school cohorts move into middle school. High school enrollment is expected to stay stable for the next five years but decrease after that.

In the chart below, H stands for high school, M stands for middle school, E stands for elementary school, and EC stands for early childhood education, or preschool, enrollment.

Denver has fewer children than it did a decade ago

Lower birth rates are one of the primary drivers of enrollment decreases, the report concludes. The chart below shows population changes in Denver from 2010 to 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The red dots show decreases in the population of children under 18. Falling mostly in the west and north of the district, the red dots follow a familiar pattern that Denverite has described as an “inverted L” that “illustrates stark physical and socioeconomic barriers in the city.”

Birth rates are declining fastest among Hispanic families

Hispanic students make up more than half of the students in Denver Public Schools, and the report notes that the decline in births among Hispanic families “will have a significant negative impact” on district enrollment. Birth rates among non-Hispanic families, many of whom are white, are actually slightly increasing. But white families are less likely than Hispanic families to enroll their children in public schools.

Denver isn’t building very much housing for families

High housing prices that push families out of the city are another primary driver of declining enrollment, the report says. To predict future enrollment, the district looks at where developers are planning to build new housing — and what type of housing they’re building.

The map below shows that most new housing will be condos, apartments, and townhomes, which historically yield fewer students than do single-family homes. Some areas of the city like southwest Denver have little new development planned. “As a result, higher housing prices are driving families out of the region while non-child households are moving in,” the report notes.

The makeup of Denver’s student population is changing

All of these changes mean the student population in Denver is getting whiter and wealthier.

On the chart below, FRL stands for free and reduced-price lunch. It indicates the percentage of students who receive subsidized school meals, a measure of poverty.

Most parts of the city expect to have fewer children

There are a few neighborhoods in the northeast part of the city where enrollment is expected to grow over the next five years due to planned housing development. But enrollment in 90% of the city’s 78 neighborhoods is expected to decline, leading to too few students and too many seats.

Currently, northwest Denver has the largest surplus at about 9,000 unfilled seats, though both northwest and southwest Denver are predicted to have more empty seats by 2026.

The charts below show actual enrollment in schools in the two regions in 2021, predicted enrollment in 2026, and the total number of seats — the current capacity — in each region.

Students still use school choice to enroll in Denver schools

The number of students who live outside Denver and transfer into Denver Public Schools is higher than the number of Denver students who transfer out to other districts. This year, the net gain for the district was about 1,350 students, the report says. Denver loses the most students to Jeffco Public Schools and gains the most students from Aurora Public Schools, which is listed on the chart below by its official name, Adams-Arapahoe 28J.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora school board votes to close two schools, keep Blueprint plan

2022-05-18T06:07:54+00:00

Reversing themselves, a majority of the Aurora school board voted reluctantly Tuesday to close two small schools at the end of the next academic year.

The district will close Sable and Paris elementary schools as part of the district’s rollout of the long-term facilities plan known as Blueprint APS, a plan that three board members wanted to abandon instead.

Board members Debbie Gerkin, Michael Carter, Tramaine Duncan, and Anne Keke voted in favor of closing the two schools and keeping the plan, while board members Stephanie Mason, Vicki Reinhard, and Nichelle Ortiz voted to abandon Blueprint and keep the schools open.

The approved plan also includes creating a new magnet school on the campus of North Middle School.

The 4-3 vote came just two months after the same board had voted to spare the schools, and some parents yelled at board members after the vote. They had urged the board in public comment to honor that prior decision and keep the schools open.

But because of the board’s governance policies, when the board rejected the superintendent’s decision, he was obligated to come back again with another proposal. Munn had pressed the board on whether they wanted to change the criteria he used to decide that these two schools were the most appropriate to close. After hours of discussion in multiple meetings, the board had trouble articulating new criteria and sometimes questioned why they should be the ones to create new guidelines.

Some board members Tuesday were still troubled that Munn ignored their March vote and presented the same school closure recommendations again. But Munn explained that it was his belief that this was the best path forward, and absent new guidelines, he had no basis on which to tell another school that they would be closed instead.

“It would just be me randomly changing my mind — until you change that criteria,” Munn said.

The district has already closed six schools as part of the Blueprint plan and committed over $75 million dollars to new projects. Those include the creation of two new magnet schools on the campuses of closed schools and the construction of two new buildings.

Blueprint APS is the district’s long-term plan to respond to declining enrollment in western parts of the district and growth on its eastern edge. Munn has said consistently that decisions made under the plan are interrelated and cannot proceed independently.

Among the board’s other options Tuesday were scrapping the long-term facilities plan altogether or pausing it while the board reviewed more history and gathered new feedback from the community to consider changes.

But doing that would destabilize several schools in the region, Munn said. Staff at other schools could feel uncertain about the future of their own schools. In that situation, he would recommend the district pay teachers stipends to keep them at the schools under closure threat.

A teacher at one of the schools set to be closed said she wasn’t interested in money.

“Save your stipend, I wanted you to save my school,” said Yolanda Calderon, who is also a board member of the teachers union.

If ordered to abandon Blueprint, Munn said he would default to a different board policy that would direct him to create a long-term plan himself — and that would still likely result in school closures.

But, according to Munn, he could adopt a stricter formula that closes schools when enrollment drops below a certain number, which might mean less notice before a decision. The current approach considers a range of factors in recommending school closure. Sable in particular does not have the lowest enrollment among schools in the region.

Board member Ortiz initially asked the board to vote on scrapping Blueprint, despite saying that she feared she was giving up control over future plans. That motion failed.

Several neighboring districts are also wrestling with ways to close schools as enrollment declines, and the board discussion at times referenced hard decisions in other districts. Jeffco Public Schools, for example, operated without a long term school closure plan for years. In the last two years, the district closed two schools that were expected to have fewer than 100 students in the coming school year. Families and staff members got only a few months notice in each of those cases.

Munn said that if Aurora abandoned Blueprint, his approach might look more like Jeffco’s.

In public comment parents and staff of Sable and Paris said they felt disrespected and betrayed. Several speakers also said they were confused about the process of having the board vote once again on the same recommendations, and questioned the facts that the superintendent presented to justify the school closures.

“Why is it still not clear what the exact criteria are?” one mother asked the school board.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Frustration with closed meetings, limited debate dog Denver’s declining enrollment committee

2022-04-07T19:51:46+00:00

Lee en español.

As Denver moves toward a fraught debate over closing schools with low enrollment, critics are assailing an advisory committee process they say has been marred by secrecy and frustration.

Some committee and community members complain of closed meetings, poor translation for Spanish-speaking parents, ignored questions, stifled debate, and filtered feedback.

“Every time somebody asks a question, they’re told it’s not going to be answered and there’s not enough time, we’re going to keep moving,” said Karimme Quintana, a Spanish-speaking mother of two students who serves on the district’s declining enrollment advisory committee.

“It seems like everything is already done, everything is already decided,” she said. “They just have us there so at the end, they can say these committee members decided.”

Inauthentic community engagement and a sense that decisions are a “done deal” by the time the district asks for input are frequent criticisms of Denver Public Schools. The school board made clear it wanted to hear community voices this time. In June, the board passed a resolution saying the community should lead, and the district support, the process of producing options to manage shrinking enrollment — although the resolution implied school closures were inevitable.

But some of the people participating in the process said it suffers from the same old flaws.

“It doesn’t feel authentic,” said Cynthia Trinidad-Sheahan, the executive director of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education and another member of the committee. “It just feels like a compliance thing — check it off, we had the committees.”

After some controversial fits and starts, the district named a declining enrollment advisory committee that began meeting early last month. The committee’s stated purpose is to recommend criteria to Superintendent Alex Marrero for closing or consolidating schools. The recommendations are due next month, but the district says no schools would close until 2024.

School closures are wildly unpopular and often inequitable. Denver risks repeating that. Its smallest schools serve high percentages of students of color from low-income families, according to district data. Several committee members have expressed frustration that they’re not able to question the fairness of closing schools or discuss other solutions to address declining enrollment.

“When they say ‘declining enrollment committee,’ I think, ‘What are some ideas we have to address it?’ Not just, ‘What are recommendations to close and consolidate?’” said Gene Fashaw, a parent and former Denver teacher on the committee. “That’s the only thing they want to hear.”

‘A little disjointed’

Grant Guyer, the district’s chief of strategy and portfolio services, said the narrow focus is intentional. “While I understand this is an incredibly complicated topic with many layers and perspectives, the committee is focused on the criteria,” Guyer said. “If people want to advocate for other approaches, we have to route those through other channels.”

Meanwhile, parents and education advocates who are not on the committee are frustrated at what they say has been a secretive process. The committee’s Wednesday meetings are not open to the public, nor are the virtual sessions recorded and shared afterward — which Guyer said is to ensure the committee has a safe space to discuss a complicated topic.

After community organizations raised concerns about the lack of transparency, the district began hosting separate meetings on Fridays for some organizations. Participants said the district shows them the same materials and data it says it shows the committee on Wednesday and then asks the organizations for feedback it promises to pass along to the committee.

But participants have questions about that process too, which some said feels like a game of telephone — they give feedback to district staff who give it to committee members.

“DPS is controlling what information is getting passed along,” said Shantelle Mulliniks, a Denver parent who was invited to the Friday meetings as a representative of the West Colfax Association of Neighbors, a neighborhood association in a part of the city that has lost students.

The district also contracted with a civic engagement organization, Warm Cookies of the Revolution, to collect feedback from families and deliver to the committee.

Warm Cookies subcontracted with another organization, Community Organizing for Radical Empathy, which hired liaisons to do the work by mid-April. One liaison said the process feels rushed, with the liaisons scrambling to set up meetings at libraries, schools, and online.

“Community engagement, in my mind, should be thoughtful and mindful and should take as long as it takes,” said Erin Phelan, a Denver parent who was hired as a liaison. “In this situation that we are in, we are just trying to get what feedback we can in the short time frame we have.”

The process “seems to be a little disjointed,” said Ambar Suero, who formerly worked in the district’s community engagement office and is now in charge of partnerships at RootEd, a Denver organization that funds autonomous schools, community groups, and equity initiatives.

Though Suero has been following this issue closely, she said she only learned about the liaisons because she saw a post soliciting feedback on Facebook.

‘They’re leaving us out’

A school principal has already quit the declining enrollment advisory committee.

Dominique Jefferson is principal at Hallett Academy, a district-run elementary school with fewer than 300 students. She said she applied to the committee to make sure the criteria would spare Hallett from closure but was quickly disheartened by virtual meetings where the district cut off members attempting to discuss the factors that led to declining enrollment.

“I inherently do not believe in school closure or consolidation,” Jefferson said. “If we have been admonished not to talk about the reasons why we got here, I will not allow my time to be wasted.”

Not all committee members are frustrated. Onsi Fakhouri, a father of three Denver students, said he joined the committee with few expectations beyond wanting to help. A former executive at a technology company, Fakhouri said the process is unfolding the way any process in which a diverse group of people trying to come to consensus on a complicated issue would.

“I’m looking at this and it’s like, ‘This is totally normal,’” said Fakhouri.

While the first few committee meetings focused on providing background to the enrollment problem — explaining how declining birth rates and high housing costs are leading to fewer children in Denver — Guyer said this week’s meeting was the first where members began to brainstorm.

After initially planning to post notes from the session on the district’s website for feedback, district officials said committee members hadn’t reached enough agreement to share anything publicly. However, the district is planning to post a survey to gather more opinions.

But some community members are still skeptical. They argue that mistrust in the process will lead to mistrust in the recommendations. The Latino community feels particularly shut out, which is concerning given that school closures likely will disproportionately affect Latino students.

Enrollment in neighborhoods like the one where committee member Quintana lives is dropping fast due in part to gentrification. Quintana said she joined the committee to discuss solutions but she’s now disheartened. The Spanish language translation at the first few meetings was the worst she’s ever experienced, she said. Guyer said the translation issues have been fixed.

Milo Marquez, a Denver parent and co-chair of a community group called the Latino Education Coalition, said it feels like the district is intentionally suppressing Latino voices.

“DPS has said over and over again that they want the voices of the community to be heard,” he said, “and again and again we see that they’re leaving us out.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora school board rejects closure of two elementary schools

2022-03-23T05:53:51+00:00

Aurora board members Tuesday rejected a recommendation to close two elementary schools as part of the district’s ongoing plans to reduce the number of schools it operates in areas with declining enrollment.

The board voted 4-3 against the recommended plan, which also included creating a new K-12 magnet program.

Superintendent Rico Munn and a facilities committee both recommended closing two small northwest elementary schools, Sable and Paris, at the end of next school year.

Sable has about 370 students and Paris has about 250. Schools in northwest Aurora have lost from 26% to 45% of their enrollment since 2015.

Board members raised concerns about the process that the district used to pick Sable and Paris as the schools to close, given that the schools aren’t actually the smallest schools in their region. The board also criticized the lack of clear and timely communication between the district and families of the schools.

Board members Tramaine Duncan, Stephanie Mason, Nichelle Ortiz, and Vicki Reinhard voted against the plan. Board members Michael Carter, Debbie Gerkin, and Anne Keke voted in favor of it.

Munn said that his criteria does not look at schools individually, but instead considers regions and looks at multiple factors including a building’s condition and its ability to be repurposed, but not a school’s academic performance.

The board asked Munn to return in 60 days with the trade-offs involved in subsidizing all small schools to avoid any closures. He also is to return with a recommendation for alternative school closures in case the board does not want to subsidize small schools. The board additionally asked for an individual recommendation on the new magnet school that was rejected as part of Tuesday’s plan.

Sable Elementary parents spoke to the school board, as they have been doing for months, asking it to reconsider plans to close their school.

Many said they were shocked when they learned that their school was recommended for closure, and many questioned the district’s motives. One mother, speaking in Spanish, said that telling her children the school was closing because there wasn’t enough money to keep it open was unacceptable.

One father said that he’s been displaced time and again since being forced out of his home in Ethiopia years ago, and later from Kenya. He didn’t want his children to endure similar forced changes.

Without family here, he also said that instead of aunts and uncles, his children have their teachers.

“We have nowhere to go to say hi to anyone,” he said. “The Sable elementary school staff members, teachers, kids in general, that’s like a family. If you close down or shut down a school it’s like you’re forcing my family apart.”

Parents from Paris Elementary told the board Tuesday that they were disappointed that the district seemed not to have taken into account the academic turnaround their school had made in the last few years.

Last year the district closed several other schools, and the administration is likely to recommend more closures in coming years as part of its Blueprint APS long-term plan.

Aurora Public Schools faces rapidly declining enrollment on the west side bordering Denver as rising housing costs push many families out, but new developments on the eastern side of the district will require new schools.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify next steps.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco votes to close another small school while looking ahead to long-term plans

2022-03-18T22:52:08+00:00

Jeffco’s school district will close another Arvada elementary school at the end of this school year after learning the school likely would have less than 100 students next fall.

Fitzmorris Elementary currently has about 114 students. After choice enrollment in the district closed, district leaders estimated the school would have just 88 students next school year.

The school board voted 4 to 1 Thursday to approve the superintendent’s recommendation to close the school.

Jeffco also closed Allendale Elementary last year. That school’s boundaries were adjacent to the Fitzmorris boundary areas. The district was criticized for closing Allendale without first engaging the community or asking the school board to vote on the decision. The district was also criticized for its timeline, which possibly violates district policy, giving parents only months to plan before the closure.

Tracy Dorland, who started as superintendent shortly after that decision, told the school board Thursday she tried to make this process different, but the short time frame couldn’t be avoided.

“We are smarter today than we were yesterday and we’re going to be smarter tomorrow than we are today,” Dorland said. “I have done what I can on the timeline that I’ve had to take lessons learned about what didn’t work … and try to make it better and more honorable of the Fitzmorris community.”

Jeffco, currently the second largest school district in the state, has had declining enrollment for years. Among the causes: An aging population, declining birth rates, and rising housing costs that have driven some families away. But even though school closure discussions have been ongoing, the district has yet to create a comprehensive plan to address how to support or choose closure for the increasing number of small schools.

District leaders are concerned that the quality of education at small schools has been declining as schools receive less funding for fewer students. At Fitzmorris, it had reached a point, Dorland said, that the opportunities for students were no longer going to be adequate.

Per pupil expenses at Fitzmorris are nearly 30% higher than at an average Jeffco elementary school, and with the loss of an additional 23% of its enrollment, the district expects the cost would have increased even further.

However, the money isn’t the real problem, Dorland said, but rather the quality of the education.

“We want to provide students a high-quality program and for the amount of investment that we’re making, the program is struggling and that’s the bottom line,” Dorland said. “We want to offer students a robust learning experience and we’re really struggling to do that at Fitzmorris.”

For example, the school cannot afford to have one teacher per grade level, Dorland said. The school has just five second graders this year so teachers work with students who are in multiple grade levels and take on extra roles. The school has tried to find community organizations that could help offer enrichment or afterschool activities the school can’t afford, but attracting an interested partner has been difficult with so few students, she said.

Fitzmorris families have been speaking to the school board for months seeking help for their school, and asking to be a part of the conversations around its fate. In February, the board held a special study session when Fitzmorris school leaders and parents were invited to present about their challenges, and what they still thought was going well.

By Thursday, when the board was scheduled to vote on the recommendations, just two parents spoke to the board. Both were resigned to the idea that the school would close, but thanked the district for the communication, and asked for a quick decision and for help keeping together the program for students with autism.

“We’re just too small anymore to give our kids an enriching environment,” said Michelle Miley, a parent of a third grader in the school’s autism program. “Although I love Fitzmorris and will miss the connections that my son has made…we need a determination as quick as possible to allow us time to adjust and prepare our kids.”

In her recommendation, Dorland said just 48 of the 224 elementary students who live in the school’s boundary attend Fitzmorris. The school has attracted students from other areas, but still loses more students than it gains.

Most students next year will go to Lawrence Elementary nearby, while the autism center program will move to Stott Elementary.

Some board members said hearing from the principals at the schools receiving the Fitzmorris students helped them to accept the recommendation.

Board members and Dorland also said Thursday that they hope the district will be able to have a finalized plan before another school needs to be closed due to low enrollment. The district has started conversations about a plan it’s calling Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools, and has begun discussions about how to define “thriving schools.” The plan would consider regional solutions instead of waiting for individual schools to have such low enrollment they must close independent of other factors.

“The ability for us to collaborate and share resources across these areas — it’s going to be awesome at some point,” said board member Danielle Varda. “I am sorry we haven’t been able to do that with Fitzmorris as part of that broader project.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

COVID money shores up budgets at Denver schools with declining enrollment

2022-03-17T00:03:12+00:00

About a third of Denver’s district-run schools are using federal coronavirus relief money to backfill their budgets due to declining student enrollment this year, next year, or both.

Denver schools are funded per pupil, and fewer students means less money to pay for teachers, mental health workers, and other staff. The pandemic has hastened enrollment declines, and the district is in the midst of coming up with criteria for when to close small schools.

Denver Public Schools currently serves approximately 90,000 students in preschool through 12th grade, which is about 3% fewer than it served two years ago.

Elementary schools have been particularly hard hit, and they make up the bulk of the 57 schools that received what the district calls budget assistance — a one-time cash infusion that has long been available to help Denver schools weather enrollment dips.

But the number of schools requesting budget assistance and the number that received it is higher than before the pandemic, with the district setting aside $8 million in federal education relief funding and another $1.6 million from the district’s general fund to help meet the need this year and next, said Chuck Carpenter, Denver Public Schools’ chief financial officer.

Usually, the district spends just $2 million to $3 million each year on budget assistance, he said.

“This reflects a much larger amount of money that we’re putting out there to deal with the volatility that COVID has brought on,” Carpenter said.

Preventing staff cuts at schools due to declining enrollment is just one way Denver Public Schools is spending the $302.8 million it received in the second and third rounds of federal education relief funding, which it must use by the end of the 2023-24 school year. The district must pass along $97.8 million of that to its independent charter schools, leaving $205 million for district-run schools.

The district is doling out a portion of those funds directly to schools to use as they see fit. Most schools are using the money — a total of $16 million this school year and $11 million next year — to pay the salaries of teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses, psychologists, social workers, counselors, interventionists, and other staff, according to a district tally.

Denver is also investing in districtwide initiatives, including social and emotional learning, math and literacy tutoring for students with learning gaps, and a virtual learning program.

Samuels Elementary School in far southeast Denver received about $167,500 in budget assistance this year and is set to get another $189,000 next year.

This is the first time in Principal Cesar Rivera’s eight years at Samuels that the school has had to request financial help, he said. Whereas Samuels enrolled nearly 500 students before the pandemic, the district is projecting enrollment will drop to 389 students next year, about 25 fewer than it has right now.

“We had a lot of positions that were in danger because of the numbers,” Rivera said.

With the budget assistance, Rivera said he was able to preserve several jobs, including paraprofessionals, a library technology specialist, and a restorative practices coordinator who helps students resolve conflicts.

District officials didn’t grant him all the money he requested, however, and he had to lay off a special education teacher and a part-time kindergarten teacher who shared a class with a teacher who coaches other teachers half time.

Rivera hopes more students will enroll at Samuels next fall and he’ll be able to use the extra per-pupil funding to hire back the part-time kindergarten teacher. If he can’t, a teacher who currently helps English language learners will have to teach the kindergarten class part time, setting off a ripple of consequences for some of Samuel’s most high-needs students.

“Without any of these positions, without this money to schools, children’s basic needs educationally — whether it’s literacy or math or social emotional — are not going to be met,” he said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Best laid plans: Years of planning haven’t spared Aurora from angst over closing schools

2022-03-09T12:00:00+00:00

Lee en español.

With students leaving one side of Aurora and new students showing up on the opposite end of the city, the Aurora school district needed a new plan to rearrange classroom space. It started collecting public opinion and crafting a long-term plan five years ago.

Yet now many parents are upset, and school board members are split over the next key step — to close two elementary schools.

At a chaotic board meeting that stretched almost until midnight last month, board members grilled the administration about its plans, proposed closing different schools, and called it unfair that they may be asked to provide alternative guidance if they rejected the superintendent’s proposal. In the end, they delayed a vote and decided to take up the closure proposal later this month.

There’s no painless way to close a school, experts and educators say, no matter how much work and time a district puts in.

The goal, researchers say, is to allow communities to feel empowered in crafting solutions, and to feel their voice was heard. Although Aurora tried to do that, some parents feel they weren’t consulted early enough, nor informed about potential school closures.

In reorganizing campuses, Aurora officials said they can’t keep all schools open and still provide broad and high-quality academics and enriching programs everywhere.

“Small schools are a legitimate approach but you have to design the entire system then to support that,” Superintendent Rico Munn said. “It’s a dramatic philosophical switch.”

Right now, running small schools prevents the district from investing in other programming.

“If we keep investing in half-empty buildings, we’re not investing in resources and people,” Munn said.

But the school board, which includes three members who joined in November, well after the district drafted the facilities plan known as Blueprint APS, may not agree.

Many metro area districts are losing enrollment and anticipate closing small schools. In Jeffco, which closed one school last year and may close another without any long-term closure process, board members suggested looking at schools as a part of their neighborhoods, as Aurora did, rather than just closing any school that hits low enrollment. Denver is also considering a regional approach.

But Aurora’s experience shows that long-range planning doesn’t necessarily make the process easier.

Aurora is losing the most enrollment in the low-income west near Denver, and gaining it in new middle-income subdivisions near the plains.

This school year, an advisory committee and Munn recommended closing two small northwest elementary schools, Sable and Paris, at the end of next school year. Last year the district also closed several other schools, and the administration is likely to recommend more closures in coming years.

As often happens elsewhere, the school closures in Aurora hit a low-income immigrant community the hardest.

“It’s a blunt instrument and unfortunately those communities aren’t left with good choices,” said Sally Nuamah of Northwestern University. “They know when those schools are taken they won’t be provided with other strong public resources so they feel they have to protect the public resources they have.”

When a district seeks public input before closing schools, it should make the community feel empowered, she said. That means involving people before proposing a solution, said Nuamah, an assistant professor of human development and social policy.

Munn said Aurora sought to do that through focus groups, surveys, regional design groups, and more over the past several years.

“We really were trying to be thoughtful. We tried to really let the community tell us its vision for that future and now we’re at what is the difficult part,” Munn said. “I think where people get caught off guard is when it becomes real.”

Aurora may have downplayed the implications of the plan. Early on, the district focused on soliciting community desires for its schools, and mentioned repurposing campuses rather than closing them.

Just before winter break, Sable parents learned their school might close. They said they don’t understand why it was chosen.

“I feel they haven’t been honest,” said parent Brenda Pineda, who said she didn’t hear about Blueprint until this year. “I wish they would have explained everything from the beginning instead of hearing different reasons at each meeting. It leads us to think there has to be something else going on.”

Pineda, a mother of a third grader at Sable, said the district said that it’s about enrollment, but she hasn’t noticed fewer children at her school. Then she heard it was about how that affected the budget, but she’s heard that schools got an influx of money for pandemic relief. Now she’s heard that the building location is attractive for other uses.

Sable with 370 students and Paris with 250 aren’t the two smallest schools in their area, where each school had enrollment declines from 26% to 45%.

Munn said that because low enrollment affects most district schools, it doesn’t itself trigger a closure. Instead, Munn’s approach considers neighborhood regions as a whole and also looks at building conditions, capacity of nearby schools, and whether the campus could be used for other purposes, among other factors.

On March 22, the board could choose to keep Sable and Paris open. If it does, Munn asked members to be prepared to give him guidance on alternatives such as new rules for picking schools to close or asking him to maintain small schools.

“We would need clarity around what that direction is because the problems are still there. They still exist,” Munn said.

Apart from being a facilities plan to close schools in underenrolled neighborhoods, and to plan for new schools in new developments, Blueprint was also designed to incorporate educational changes.

The district is opening magnet schools with different themes in each of its seven regions, including an arts magnet opening in the fall, and remodeling to create more K-8 programs.

Munn says he has prioritized equity. He told the board the investments amount to about $90 million for schools on the east side and $87 million for those on the west side.

The long term-plans will serve Aurora well as demographics continue to shift, said Parker Baxter, of the University of Colorado Denver.

“This is where I give Aurora credit for intentionally addressing this over a long-term process because it is going to be difficult,” said Baxter, director of the university’s Center for Education Policy Analysis. He has evaluated the community engagement element of the district’s Blueprint plan.

But big-picture equity doesn’t necessarily translate to satisfaction among families who might lose a neighborhood school.

Lucero Gonzalez doesn’t want her third-grade daughter, Valentina, 9, to face more years of change.

“She wants us to save her school and I want her to feel our love and support in her heart so she knows we tried everything we could,” Gonzalez said.

If the board approves the district’s plans to close Sable, Valentina and her third grade classmates would finish the fourth grade there, but transfer to a new school for fifth grade, and then to another for middle school.

That’s after the pandemic has already interrupted their elementary learning since first grade.

“That’s a lot of change for kids,” Gonzalez said.

For Gonzalez herself, Sable has become family. Through a program she learned some English, and now she is working on her GED.

She has made friends with other immigrant mothers who, like her, have no family here and depend on other moms for social interaction. With different native languages, they communicate in the English they learned at Sable.

The district’s Long Range Facilities Advisory Committee initially considered closing Park Lane Elementary, but then recommended closing Sable and looking at other uses for the space because of its large parking lot and location. They also worried that if Park Lane closed, Sable could not accommodate the displaced students.

That late shift in plans meant that parents from Sable didn’t find out about a possible closure of their school until after the committee issued its recommendations. On the district’s earlier notice, Sable wasn’t on the initial list of possible closures. Now families doubt that their community will benefit from the proceeds or from the new use of the building.

Gonzalez fears that if her school closes, the community of moms will be split up. Many don’t have cars and can’t walk to a school elsewhere.

“Friends are the family we choose,” Gonzalez said. “It’s very sad to think we won’t see the people we share our lives with again.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Annual census shows Colorado schools are still missing students

2022-01-19T19:27:46+00:00

Slightly more children enrolled in Colorado public schools this school year than last year, but enrollment still remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

Colorado schools counted 886,517 students, an increase of 3,318 students or just 0.4% over last school year, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education.

Before the pandemic caused school closures and other disruptions, Colorado public school enrollment had been growing slowly and was at more than 913,000 in the fall of 2019. Current enrollment is about 2.9% below that level.

When schools shut down, many students stopped engaging and school districts struggled to find them. Districts are spending considerable time and effort on tracking down students who stopped coming to school.

Despite that work, fewer than 600 schools in the state increased enrollment this school year from their fall 2019 totals. More than twice as many schools remain below those levels.

Some of the decline is related to long-term demographic trends, and some is related to families making different educational choices.

“The big question is how sticky the pandemic changes will be,” Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Center, said.

Last school year, some of the largest enrollment decreases were in the lowest grades, but this year preschool and kindergarten grew the most over the previous year.

Also last school year, some students left local schools to home school. That trend reversed this school year, with the number of students home-schooling now at 10,502, down from 15,773 last year, but still much higher than 7,880 in 2019.

Together, online programs recorded a slight decrease in enrollment this year compared with last. A Chalkbeat analysis comparing this year’s enrollment with 2019-20 shows that many of the schools with the highest gains are online schools.

Racial and ethnic breakdowns show that the number of white and Black students dropped for a second year while the number of Hispanic students in public schools grew some. The number of white students had already been dropping before the pandemic, but the number of Black and Hispanic students in the state previously had been growing.

In raw numbers, enrollment grew the most among Hispanic students — a gain of 4,357 students — partially recovering from the second-highest drop in students last school year when there was a loss of 8,114 students.

This year’s gains, as a percentage of their total, were not the largest. Students who identify as two or more races, and native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students posted the largest percentage gains.

In numbers, the biggest decline came among white students, with 3,106 fewer than a year earlier. By percentage, Native American students had the biggest decreases in both this school year and the previous one.

Enrollment had been declining in most metro area school districts even before the pandemic. The Sheridan, Littleton and Jeffco school districts posted the largest percentage drops in the number of students among metro area districts. Other districts with large drops in enrollment included Cheyenne Mountain 12 in Colorado Springs and the Las Animas district in southern Colorado.

The districts with the largest increases in enrollment included the Harrison school district in El Paso County and the 27J district based in Brighton.

Look up enrollment changes at your school or district in the table below:

District name	School name	2021 enrollment	2019 enrollment	Percent change
School District 27J	27J Online Academy	390	-	-
Denver County 1	5280 High School	114	95	20.00%
Pueblo County 70	70 Online	214	218	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Abraham Lincoln High School	993	971	2.27%
Fountain 8	Abrams Elementary School	480	467	2.78%
Denver County 1	Academia Ana Marie Sandoval	380	423	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Academy 360	213	208	2.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Academy Charter School	739	745	-0.81%
Academy 20	Academy Endeavour Elementary School	321	415	-22.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning	285	293	-2.73%
Mapleton 1	Academy High School	470	467	0.64%
Academy 20	Academy International Elementary School	414	521	-20.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Academy of Advanced Learning	872	758	15.04%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Arts and Knowledge Elementary	152	212	-28.30%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Charter Schools	1,894	1886	0.42%
Las Animas RE-1	Academy of Las Animas Online School	351	1796	-80.46%
Mapleton 1	Achieve Academy	397	526	-24.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Achieve Online	332	271	22.51%
Douglas County Re 1	Acres Green Elementary School	380	493	-22.92%
Adams County 14	Adams City High School	1,770	1721	2.85%
Adams County 14	Adams City Middle School	657	773	-15.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Adams Elementary School	329	381	-13.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Adams Elementary School	350	452	-22.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Adams12 Five Star Preschool	45	207	-78.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Academy	184	396	-53.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Grammar School	635	449	41.43%
Mapleton 1	Adventure Elementary	376	428	-12.15%
Agate 300	Agate Elementary School	48	32	50.00%
Agate 300	Agate Junior Senior High School	36	12	200.00%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Elementary School	63	69	-8.70%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Junior-Senior High School	51	52	-1.92%
Academy 20	Air Academy High School	1,351	1403	-3.71%
Akron R-1	Akron Elementary School	314	284	10.56%
Akron R-1	Akron High School	97	87	11.49%
Jefferson County R-1	Alameda International Junior/Senior High School	1,080	1117	-3.31%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School 3-5	498	1142	-56.39%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School K-2	464	-	-
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa High School	597	600	-0.50%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Online	92	-	-
Sheridan 2	Alice Terry Elementary School	204	214	-4.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Alicia Sanchez International School	335	360	-6.94%
District 49	ALLIES	120	121	-0.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Alpine Elementary School	391	475	-17.68%
Adams County 14	Alsup Elementary School	463	415	11.57%
Lamar Re-2	Alta Vista Charter School	130	132	-1.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Altitude Elementary School	1,007	779	29.27%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Altona Middle School	795	830	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Altura Elementary School	466	521	-10.56%
Douglas County Re 1	American Academy	2,556	2535	0.83%
Denver County 1	American Indian Academy of Denver	146	-	-
Boulder Valley Re 2	Angevine Middle School	659	689	-4.35%
Charter School Institute	Animas High School	204	208	-1.92%
Durango 9-R	Animas Valley Elementary School	181	248	-27.02%
Cherry Creek 5	Antelope Ridge Elementary School	588	655	-10.23%
Academy 20	Antelope Trails Elementary School	321	337	-4.75%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito High School	38	46	-17.39%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito Middle School	26	20	30.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Apex Home School Enrichment Program	717	804	-10.82%
Mesa County Valley 51	Appleton Elementary School	444	456	-2.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	APS Early Beginnings - A Zoom Site	38	35	8.57%
Fountain 8	Aragon Elementary School	366	672	-45.54%
Littleton 6	Arapahoe High School	1,884	2157	-12.66%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Arapahoe Ridge Elementary School	500	575	-13.04%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Arapahoe Ridge High School	134	150	-10.67%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Elementary School	53	54	-1.85%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Undivided High School	48	60	-20.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Arkansas Elementary School	429	418	2.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Arrowhead Elementary School	500	539	-7.24%
Douglas County Re 1	Arrowwood Elementary School	367	383	-4.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada High School	759	768	-1.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada K-8	554	652	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada West High School	1,765	1801	-2.00%
Denver County 1	Asbury Elementary School	310	333	-6.91%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Ascend College Prep	39	-	-
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Douglas County	856	544	57.35%
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Northern Colorado	581	-	-
Denver County 1	Ashley Elementary School	272	351	-22.51%
Aspen 1	Aspen Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Aspen Creek K-8 School	733	859	-14.67%
Cherry Creek 5	Aspen Crossing Elementary School	607	612	-0.82%
Aspen 1	Aspen Elementary School	464	462	0.43%
Aspen 1	Aspen High School	569	554	2.71%
Aspen 1	Aspen Middle School	469	478	-1.88%
Aspen 1	Aspen Preschool	15	24	-37.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Aspen Ridge Preparatory School	503	439	14.58%
Academy 20	Aspen Valley Campus	117	159	-26.42%
Douglas County Re 1	Aspen View Academy	930	904	2.88%
Harrison 2	Aspire Online Academy	139	-	-
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Elementary School	679	114	495.61%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy High School	1,564	485	222.47%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Middle School	714	68	950.00%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Elementary School	206	-	-
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory High School	512	457	12.04%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Middle School	516	514	0.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Audubon Elementary School	286	346	-17.34%
Denver County 1	AUL Denver	157	135	16.30%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Academy Charter School	506	520	-2.69%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Central High School	1,830	2027	-9.72%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Frontier K-8	772	692	11.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Hills Middle School	842	777	8.37%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Quest K-8	586	595	-1.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Science & Tech Middle School	444	166	167.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora West College Preparatory Academy	1,106	1137	-2.73%
Buena Vista R-31	Avery/Parsons Elementary School	439	428	2.57%
Eagle County RE 50	Avon Elementary School	290	253	14.62%
Pueblo County 70	Avondale Elementary School	143	170	-15.88%
Charter School Institute	Axis International Academy	190	203	-6.40%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	AXL Academy	358	445	-19.55%
Valley RE-1	Ayres Elementary School	369	451	-18.18%
Thompson R2-J	B F Kitchen Elementary School	193	217	-11.06%
Delta County 50(J)	Backpack Early Learning Academy	198	214	-7.48%
Poudre R-1	Bacon Elementary School	443	595	-25.55%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Baker Elementary School	293	303	-3.30%
Poudre R-1	Bamford Elementary School	263	-	-
District 49	Banning Lewis Ranch Academy	1,676	1435	16.79%
Denver County 1	Barnum Elementary School	333	387	-13.95%
Meeker RE-1	Barone Middle School	158	188	-15.96%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Elementary School	508	564	-9.93%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt High School	451	501	-9.98%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Middle School	416	482	-13.69%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain Early College High School	5	13	-61.54%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain High School	945	955	-1.05%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Battle Rock Charter School	89	77	15.58%
Poudre R-1	Bauder Elementary School	531	587	-9.54%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield High School	398	372	6.99%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Intermediate School	302	321	-5.92%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Middle School	326	361	-9.70%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Primary School	285	309	-7.77%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Elementary School	355	367	-3.27%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Pre-School	54	-	-
Denver County 1	Beach Court Elementary School	262	255	2.75%
Douglas County Re 1	Bear Canyon Elementary School	411	492	-16.46%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Bear Creek Elementary School	892	963	-7.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Bear Creek Elementary School	346	400	-13.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek High School	1,495	1514	-1.25%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek K-8 School	956	1007	-5.06%
Denver County 1	Bear Valley International School	498	450	10.67%
Poudre R-1	Beattie Elementary School	320	363	-11.85%
Brush RE-2(J)	Beaver Valley Elementary School	324	331	-2.11%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Beech Street Preschool	80	116	-31.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Bell Middle School	778	927	-16.07%
Greeley 6	Bella Romero Academy of Applied Technology	1,019	1147	-11.16%
School District 27J	Belle Creek Charter School	600	689	-12.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Belleview Elementary School	481	586	-17.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Belmar School of Integrated Arts	211	232	-9.05%
Pueblo City 60	Belmont Elementary School	451	454	-0.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Ben Franklin Academy	905	930	-2.69%
Eaton RE-2	Benjamin Eaton Elementary School	400	388	3.09%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Elementary School	256	279	-8.24%
Poudre R-1	Bennett Elementary School	395	454	-13.00%
Bennett 29J	Bennett High School	403	361	11.63%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Intermediate School	239	256	-6.64%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Middle School	300	184	63.04%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Preschool	51	37	37.84%
District 49	Bennett Ranch Elementary School	383	357	7.28%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Meadow Primary School	281	330	-14.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Valley Intermediate School	226	280	-19.29%
Eagle County RE 50	Berry Creek Middle School	225	280	-19.64%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Early Childhood	29	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Elementary School	472	486	-2.88%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud High School	685	696	-1.58%
Pueblo City 60	Bessemer Elementary School	258	282	-8.51%
Poudre R-1	Bethke Elementary School	532	638	-16.61%
Bethune R-5	Bethune Public Schools	108	118	-8.47%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Elementary School	85	86	-1.16%
Pueblo City 60	Beulah Heights Elementary School	308	371	-16.98%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Middle School	45	66	-31.82%
Mapleton 1	Big Picture College and Career Academy	116	136	-14.71%
Thompson R2-J	Big Thompson Elementary School	195	222	-12.16%
Monte Vista C-8	Bill Metz Elementary School	270	357	-24.37%
Thompson R2-J	Bill Reed Middle School	542	673	-19.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Birch Elementary School	341	396	-13.89%
Cherry Creek 5	Black Forest Hills Elementary School	627	603	3.98%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Black Rock Elementary	577	579	-0.35%
Poudre R-1	Blevins Middle School	546	629	-13.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Blue Heron Elementary School	383	399	-4.01%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Blue Mountain Elementary	538	629	-14.47%
Poudre R-1	Boltz Middle School	623	627	-0.64%
Mesa County Valley 51	Bookcliff Middle School	545	590	-7.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Boston K-8 School	414	462	-10.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Community School/Integrated Studies	286	307	-6.84%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder High School	2,139	2153	-0.65%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Prep Charter High School	107	117	-8.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Universal	382	76	402.63%
Pueblo City 60	Bradford Elementary School	313	374	-16.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 North	315	352	-10.51%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 South	402	502	-19.92%
Denver County 1	Bradley International School	565	569	-0.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Brady Exploration School	212	395	-46.33%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School	83	67	23.88%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School Online	419	364	15.11%
School District 27J	Brantner Elementary School	698	693	0.72%
Summit RE-1	Breckenridge Elementary School	198	209	-5.26%
Greeley 6	Brentwood Middle School	604	687	-12.08%
Academy 20	Briargate Preschool	96	116	-17.24%
Harrison 2	Bricker Elementary School	267	346	-22.83%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Bridges	86	76	13.16%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Elementary School	94	85	10.59%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Undivided High School	92	99	-7.07%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Bright Horizons Preschool	27	-	-
School District 27J	Brighton High School	1,881	1816	3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Bristol Elementary School	251	234	7.26%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Broadmoor Elementary School	323	342	-5.56%
Mesa County Valley 51	Broadway Elementary School	281	271	3.69%
School District 27J	Bromley East Charter School	1,175	1181	-0.51%
Denver County 1	Bromwell Elementary School	321	332	-3.31%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield Heights Middle School	516	564	-8.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield High School	1,607	1564	2.75%
Denver County 1	Brown International Academy	576	636	-9.43%
Denver County 1	Bruce Randolph School	731	777	-5.92%
Eagle County RE 50	Brush Creek Elementary School	387	389	-0.51%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush High School	373	411	-9.25%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush Middle School	315	301	4.65%
Denver County 1	Bryant Webster Dual Language ECE-8 School	369	413	-10.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Buena Vista Elementary School	198	218	-9.17%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista High School	274	299	-8.36%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista Middle School	226	213	6.10%
Douglas County Re 1	Buffalo Ridge Elementary School	462	442	4.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Buffalo Trail Elementary School	570	661	-13.77%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Elementary School	325	353	-7.93%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Burlington Elementary School	342	427	-19.91%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington High School	201	203	-0.99%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Middle School	223	222	0.45%
Byers 32J	Byers Elementary School	265	317	-16.40%
Byers 32J	Byers Junior-Senior High School	249	240	3.75%
Monte Vista C-8	Byron Syring Delta Center	57	49	16.33%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Elementary School	301	357	-15.69%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Middle School	330	335	-1.49%
Garfield Re-2	Cactus Valley Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Elementary School	210	199	5.53%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Secondary School	236	153	54.25%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Elementary School	141	157	-10.19%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Junior-Senior High School	117	137	-14.60%
Valley RE-1	Campbell Elementary School	407	436	-6.65%
Jefferson County R-1	Campbell Elementary School	194	225	-13.78%
Campo RE-6	Campo Elementary School	31	21	47.62%
Campo RE-6	Campo Undivided High School	20	21	-4.76%
Cherry Creek 5	Campus Middle School	1,355	1516	-10.62%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City High School	964	1032	-6.59%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City Middle School	370	387	-4.39%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Canon Elementary School	117	139	-15.83%
Canon City RE-1	Canon Exploratory School	340	352	-3.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Cantril	15	25	-40.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Canyon Creek Elementary School	463	494	-6.28%
Charter School Institute	Caprock Academy	883	878	0.57%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Carbon Valley Academy	211	231	-8.66%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Middle School	348	369	-5.69%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Cardinal Community Academy Charter School	179	188	-4.79%
Mesa County Valley 51	Career Center Preschool	125	126	-0.79%
Denver County 1	Career Education Center Early College	490	491	-0.20%
Harrison 2	Career Readiness Academy	42	65	-35.38%
Clear Creek RE-1	Carlson Elementary School	138	169	-18.34%
Harrison 2	Carmel Community School	331	346	-4.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Carmody Middle School	640	784	-18.37%
Thompson R2-J	Carrie Martin Elementary School	268	273	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Carson Elementary School	391	465	-15.91%
Fountain 8	Carson Middle School	652	705	-7.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Carver Elementary School	213	272	-21.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Casey Middle School	499	639	-21.91%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Elementary School	400	424	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Middle School	741	842	-12.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle View High School	2,136	2183	-2.15%
Denver County 1	Castro Elementary School	288	357	-19.33%
Pueblo County 70	Cedar Ridge Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Elementary School	332	374	-11.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge High School	271	276	-1.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Middle School	192	214	-10.28%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri High School	325	301	7.97%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri Middle School	242	267	-9.36%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centaurus High School	1,594	1453	9.70%
Denver County 1	Centennial A School for Expeditionary Learning	455	451	0.89%
Littleton 6	Centennial Academy of Fine Arts Education	373	499	-25.25%
Centennial BOCES	Centennial BOCES High School	102	103	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Centennial Elementary	485	529	-8.32%
Greeley 6	Centennial Elementary School	440	458	-3.93%
Thompson R2-J	Centennial Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Centennial Elementary School	413	497	-16.90%
Harrison 2	Centennial Elementary School	343	439	-21.87%
Poudre R-1	Centennial High School	125	112	11.61%
Pueblo City 60	Centennial High School	870	994	-12.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centennial Middle School	596	637	-6.44%
Montrose County RE-1J	Centennial Middle School	578	643	-10.11%
Centennial R-1	Centennial School	203	219	-7.31%
Denver County 1	Center for Talent Development at Greenlee	268	299	-10.37%
Center 26 JT	Center High School	148	133	11.28%
Center 26 JT	Center Virtual Academy	15	16	-6.25%
Adams County 14	Central Elementary School	432	442	-2.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Central Elementary School	345	402	-14.18%
Pueblo City 60	Central High School	892	800	11.50%
Mesa County Valley 51	Central High School	1,630	1647	-1.03%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Century Middle School	866	918	-5.66%
Buena Vista R-31	Chaffee County High School	25	38	-34.21%
Cherry Creek 5	Challenge School	534	528	1.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Challenge to Excellence Charter School	536	521	2.88%
Academy 20	Challenger Middle School	607	720	-15.69%
Douglas County Re 1	Chaparral High School	2,076	2193	-5.34%
Greeley 6	Chappelow K-8 Magnet School	672	686	-2.04%
Englewood 1	Charles Hay World School	338	332	1.81%
Denver County 1	Charles M. Schenck (CMS) Community School	305	321	-4.98%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chatfield Elementary School	415	425	-2.35%
Jefferson County R-1	Chatfield High School	1,791	1842	-2.77%
Pueblo City 60	Chavez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy	1,025	1026	-0.10%
Denver County 1	Cheltenham Elementary School	273	333	-18.02%
Cheraw 31	Cheraw School	231	224	3.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherokee Trail Elementary School	579	564	2.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherokee Trail High School	2,833	2818	0.53%
Englewood 1	Cherrelyn Elementary School	228	233	-2.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Charter Academy	571	570	0.18%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Elevation	655	121	441.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek High School	3,809	3806	0.08%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cherry Drive Elementary School	359	375	-4.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Hills Village Elementary School	507	531	-4.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherry Valley Elementary School	40	35	14.29%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School	321	334	-3.89%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain High School	1,263	1286	-1.79%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School	557	597	-6.70%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Elementary School	116	127	-8.66%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Junior/High School	72	70	2.86%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Children's Kiva Montessori School	139	97	43.30%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Elementary School	622	634	-1.89%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Middle School	1,013	527	92.22%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chipeta Elementary School	395	435	-9.20%
Colorado Springs 11	Chipeta Elementary School	423	477	-11.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cimarron Elementary School	398	463	-14.04%
Douglas County Re 1	Cimarron Middle	1,172	1293	-9.36%
Colorado Springs 11	CIVA Charter Academy	186	179	3.91%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	CIVICA Colorado	131	-	-
Englewood 1	Clayton Elementary School	365	420	-13.10%
Mapleton 1	Clayton Partnership School	407	474	-14.14%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek High School	237	216	9.72%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek Middle School	92	107	-14.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Clear Sky Elementary	682	744	-8.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Clifton Elementary School	383	438	-12.56%
Lake County R-1	Cloud City High School	36	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Cloverleaf Home Education	201	307	-34.53%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Clyde Miller K-8	474	472	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Coal Creek Canyon K-8 Elementary School	118	149	-20.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Coal Creek Elementary School	371	389	-4.63%
Garfield Re-2	Coal Ridge High School	498	563	-11.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Coal Ridge Middle School	819	823	-0.49%
Denver County 1	Cole Arts and Science Academy	276	320	-13.75%
Denver County 1	Colfax Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Denver County 1	College View Elementary School	314	427	-26.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Collegiate Academy of Colorado	415	457	-9.19%
Denver County 1	Collegiate Preparatory Academy	287	364	-21.15%
Mapleton 1	Colorado Connections Academy	2,154	2274	-5.28%
Durango 9-R	Colorado Connections Academy @ Durango	1,157	810	42.84%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early College Fort Collins	1,249	1319	-5.31%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Aurora	451	343	31.49%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Douglas County	1,096	651	68.36%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins West	514	35	1368.57%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Windsor	1,303	185	604.32%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter	191	283	-32.51%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter - GES	146	170	-14.12%
Charter School Institute	Colorado International Language Academy	308	381	-19.16%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Military Academy	768	509	50.88%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online High School	513	191	168.59%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online Middle School	420	200	110.00%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Elementary School	1,294	714	81.23%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy High School	772	659	17.15%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Middle School	755	685	10.22%
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	162	189	-14.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Colorado Skies Academy	214	118	81.36%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado Sports Leadership Academy	384	410	-6.34%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Charter Academy	403	431	-6.50%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Early Colleges	644	579	11.23%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado STEM Academy	405	418	-3.11%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Summit Connections Academy	416	-	-
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy	454	237	91.56%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy High School	369	357	3.36%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy Middle School	125	135	-7.41%
Englewood 1	Colorado's Finest High School of Choice	234	299	-21.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Colorow Elementary School	189	206	-8.25%
Colorado Springs 11	Columbia Elementary School	285	308	-7.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Columbia Middle School	683	727	-6.05%
Denver County 1	Columbian Elementary School	217	241	-9.96%
Pueblo City 60	Columbian Elementary School	309	370	-16.49%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Columbine Elementary School	405	366	10.66%
Denver County 1	Columbine Elementary School	276	275	0.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Columbine Elementary School	248	288	-13.89%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Columbine Elementary School	412	494	-16.60%
Woodland Park Re-2	Columbine Elementary School	260	358	-27.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine High School	1,707	1745	-2.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine Hills Elementary School	309	321	-3.74%
Montrose County RE-1J	Columbine Middle School	504	517	-2.51%
Charter School Institute	Community Leadership Academy	322	456	-29.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Community Montessori School	260	309	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Community Prep Charter School	253	228	10.96%
Denver County 1	Compass Academy	284	300	-5.33%
Poudre R-1	Compass Community Collaborative School	173	174	-0.57%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Golden Charter School	420	423	-0.71%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Wheat Ridge Charter School	288	286	0.70%
Denver County 1	Compassion Road Academy	69	96	-28.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Conifer Senior High School	815	873	-6.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson Campus	18	44	-59.09%
Thompson R2-J	Conrad Ball Middle School	333	457	-27.13%
Fountain 8	Conrad Early Learning Center	240	-	-
Denver County 1	Contemporary Learning Academy	94	124	-24.19%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 2	213	197	8.12%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 3	413	226	82.74%
Douglas County Re 1	Copper Mesa Elementary School	353	428	-17.52%
Jefferson County R-1	Coronado Elementary School	419	498	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Coronado High School	1,325	1385	-4.33%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coronado Hills Elementary School	455	578	-21.28%
Pueblo City 60	Corwin International Magnet School	512	597	-14.24%
Denver County 1	Cory Elementary School	396	410	-3.41%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Junior-Senior High School	115	119	-3.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cotton Creek Elementary School	498	556	-10.43%
Cherry Creek 5	Cottonwood Creek Elementary School	577	653	-11.64%
Montrose County RE-1J	Cottonwood Elementary School	433	431	0.46%
Thompson R2-J	Cottonwood Plains Elementary School	394	419	-5.97%
Douglas County Re 1	Cougar Run Elementary School	364	441	-17.46%
Denver County 1	Cowell Elementary School	283	378	-25.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Coyote Creek Elementary School	403	408	-1.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Coyote Hills Elementary School	543	565	-3.89%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	404	428	-5.61%
Thompson R2-J	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	283	362	-21.82%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Craig Middle School	454	493	-7.91%
Pueblo County 70	Craver Middle School	196	213	-7.98%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Crawford Elementary School	405	489	-17.18%
Denver County 1	Creativity Challenge Community	304	306	-0.65%
Creede School District	Creede School	78	81	-3.70%
Cherry Creek 5	Creekside Elementary School	590	647	-8.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Creekside Elementary School at Martin Park	343	390	-12.05%
Jefferson County R-1	Creighton Middle School	780	874	-10.76%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cresson Elementary School	158	183	-13.66%
Salida R-32	Crest Academy	46	45	2.22%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Crest View Elementary School	448	537	-16.57%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Elementary School	334	342	-2.34%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Secondary School	421	431	-2.32%
Douglas County Re 1	Cresthill Middle School	738	776	-4.90%
Moffat 2	Crestone Charter School	83	88	-5.68%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cripple Creek-Victor Junior-Senior High School	194	184	5.43%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Elementary K-6	203	237	-14.35%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Junior and Senior High School	202	188	7.45%
Charter School Institute	Crown Pointe Charter Academy	462	469	-1.49%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Crystal River Elementary School	374	420	-10.95%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County Elementary School	171	200	-14.50%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County High School	102	105	-2.86%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer Middle School	88	90	-2.22%
Jefferson County R-1	D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School	1,119	1035	8.12%
Widefield 3	D3 My Way Virtual School	343	-	-
Pueblo City 60	D60 Online School	353	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Dakota Ridge Senior High School	1,344	1447	-7.12%
Cherry Creek 5	Dakota Valley Elementary School	522	545	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dalton Elementary School	417	437	-4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Daniel C Oakes High School--Castle Rock	137	158	-13.29%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dartmouth Elementary School	407	375	8.53%
Douglas County Re 1	DC Montessori Charter School	498	556	-10.43%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Ford	483	507	-4.73%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Montbello	946	925	2.27%
De Beque 49JT	De Beque PK-12 School District 49JT	172	164	4.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Deane Elementary School	305	414	-26.33%
Platte Canyon 1	Deer Creek Elementary School	417	451	-7.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Deer Creek Middle School	603	752	-19.81%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Elementary School	173	145	19.31%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School	122	108	12.96%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte Elementary School	225	229	-1.75%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte High Jr./Sr. High School	178	192	-7.29%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Academy of Applied Learning	23	27	-14.81%
Denver County 1	Delta High School	109	101	7.92%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta High School	622	605	2.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Middle School	511	494	3.44%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Online Learning Academy	40	-	-
Denver County 1	Denison Montessori School	363	396	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Dennison Elementary School	609	629	-3.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for 21st-Century Learning at Wyman	159	205	-22.44%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies	516	672	-23.21%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont	354	420	-15.71%
Denver County 1	Denver Discovery School	113	199	-43.22%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Northfield	530	138	284.06%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Southeast	494	573	-13.79%
Denver County 1	Denver Justice High School	131	109	20.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Language School	885	869	1.84%
Denver County 1	Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High School	225	240	-6.25%
Denver County 1	Denver Online	307	287	6.97%
Denver County 1	Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design	132	175	-24.57%
Denver County 1	Denver School of the Arts	1,090	1110	-1.80%
Pueblo County 70	Desert Sage Elementary School	375	405	-7.41%
Julesburg Re-1	Destinations Career Academy of Colorado	545	545	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Devinny Elementary School	466	475	-1.89%
Summit RE-1	Dillon Valley Elementary School	425	426	-0.23%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Elementary School	522	525	-0.57%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus High School	1,123	1158	-3.02%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Middle School	761	815	-6.63%
Widefield 3	Discovery High School	54	71	-23.94%
Greeley 6	District 6 Online Academy	628	-	-
Durango 9-R	District 9-R Shared School	156	147	6.12%
Colorado Springs 11	Doherty High School	1,916	1992	-3.82%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Elementary School	284	360	-21.11%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Middle School	209	-	-
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Secondary School	168	274	-38.69%
Denver County 1	Dora Moore ECE-8 School	360	352	2.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Doral Academy of Colorado	168	193	-12.95%
Greeley 6	Dos Rios Elementary School	462	495	-6.67%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dos Rios Elementary School	300	331	-9.37%
Douglas County Re 1	Douglas County High School	1,820	1808	0.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Douglass Elementary School	313	400	-21.75%
Academy 20	Douglass Valley Elementary School	310	316	-1.90%
Denver County 1	Doull Elementary School	323	416	-22.36%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove Creek High School	138	122	13.11%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove's Nest Early Care and Education Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Downtown Denver Expeditionary School	274	344	-20.35%
Denver County 1	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College	1,144	1279	-10.56%
Jefferson County R-1	Drake Junior High School	935	920	1.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Dry Creek Elementary School	341	406	-16.01%
Denver County 1	DSST Middle School @ Noel Campus	456	309	47.57%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers High School	557	529	5.29%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers Middle School	476	482	-1.24%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole High School	357	362	-1.38%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole Middle School	262	346	-24.28%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View High School	581	539	7.79%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View Middle School	484	471	2.76%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green High School	576	442	30.32%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green Middle School	447	472	-5.30%
Denver County 1	DSST: Elevate Northeast High School	160	-	-
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch High School	565	556	1.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch Middle School	479	482	-0.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview High School	570	577	-1.21%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview Middle School	475	474	0.21%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dual Immersion Academy School	283	309	-8.41%
Poudre R-1	Dunn Elementary School	383	409	-6.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Dunstan Middle School	830	941	-11.80%
Adams County 14	Dupont Elementary School	408	477	-14.47%
Durango 9-R	Durango Big Picture High School	84	76	10.53%
Durango 9-R	Durango High School	1,350	1227	10.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Dutch Creek Elementary School	276	284	-2.82%
Eads RE-1	Eads Elementary School	132	119	10.92%
Eads RE-1	Eads High School	44	49	-10.20%
Eads RE-1	Eads Middle School	43	35	22.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Academy	126	136	-7.35%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle County Charter Academy	360	346	4.05%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Eagle Crest Elementary School	426	583	-26.93%
School District 27J	Eagle Ridge Academy	526	522	0.77%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Ridge Elementary School	597	627	-4.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Early College High School	3	23	-86.96%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley High School	1,072	959	11.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Middle School	350	377	-7.16%
Cherry Creek 5	Eaglecrest High School	3,134	3063	2.32%
Fountain 8	Eagleside Elementary School	525	591	-11.17%
Denver County 1	Eagleton Elementary School	258	309	-16.50%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Eagleview Elementary School	518	561	-7.66%
Academy 20	Eagleview Middle School	954	1017	-6.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Early Childhood Center	95	93	2.15%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Early Childhood Center	153	176	-13.07%
Montrose County RE-1J	Early Childhood Center	192	310	-38.06%
Sheridan 2	Early Childhood Education Center	106	162	-34.57%
Greeley 6	Early College Academy	328	279	17.56%
Charter School Institute	Early College of Arvada	251	335	-25.07%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Francis M. Day	26	-	-
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Gregory Hill	219	248	-11.69%
Charter School Institute	Early Learning Center at New Legacy Charter School	3	8	-62.50%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Perl Mack	14	22	-36.36%
Littleton 6	East Elementary School	202	283	-28.62%
East Grand 2	East Grand Middle School	302	326	-7.36%
Denver County 1	East High School	2,589	2556	1.29%
Pueblo City 60	East High School	934	986	-5.27%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	East Middle School	861	913	-5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	East Middle School	406	455	-10.77%
Colorado Springs 11	Eastlake High School of Colorado Springs	96	163	-41.10%
Cherry Creek 5	Eastridge Community Elementary School	780	886	-11.96%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Elementary School	404	414	-2.42%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton High School	587	573	2.44%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Middle School	488	464	5.17%
Greeley 6	ECC Aims District 6 Preschool	150	140	7.14%
Douglas County Re 1	eDCSD	34	35	-2.86%
Jefferson County R-1	Edgewater Elementary School	285	376	-24.20%
Denver County 1	Edison Elementary School	522	559	-6.62%
Colorado Springs 11	Edison Elementary School	273	323	-15.48%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Elementary School	45	54	-16.67%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Junior-Senior High School	38	66	-42.42%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Prep	54	123	-56.10%
Park County RE-2	Edith Teter Elementary School	211	250	-15.60%
Academy 20	Edith Wolford Elementary School	335	378	-11.38%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Edna and John W. Mosley P-8	940	1038	-9.44%
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Early Learning Center	98	-	-
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Elementary School	299	279	7.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Eiber Elementary School	281	314	-10.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eisenhower Elementary School	353	402	-12.19%
School District 27J	Elaine S. Padilla	386	-	-
Elbert 200	Elbert Elementary School	127	110	15.45%
Elbert 200	Elbert Junior-Senior High School	154	144	6.94%
Douglas County Re 1	Eldorado Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eldorado K-8 School	663	841	-21.17%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth High School	663	657	0.91%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Middle School	428	404	5.94%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Running Creek Preschool	72	78	-7.69%
Garfield Re-2	Elk Creek Elementary	250	288	-13.19%
Jefferson County R-1	Elk Creek Elementary School	358	389	-7.97%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Elkhart Elementary School	489	569	-14.06%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Elementary School	524	586	-10.58%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Middle School	202	250	-19.20%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Senior High School	276	306	-9.80%
Denver County 1	Ellis Elementary School	375	388	-3.35%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Emerald Elementary School	383	429	-10.72%
Denver County 1	Emily Griffith High School	258	385	-32.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Emory Elementary School	386	441	-12.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Empower Community High School	171	120	42.50%
Academy 20	Encompass Heights Elementary School	399	-	-
Cherry Creek 5	Endeavor Academy	240	283	-15.19%
Englewood 1	Englewood Early Childhood Education Center at Maddox	217	230	-5.65%
Englewood 1	Englewood High School	548	554	-1.08%
Englewood 1	Englewood Leadership Academy	93	79	17.72%
Englewood 1	Englewood Middle School	214	282	-24.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Elementary School	357	355	0.56%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie High School	1,713	1467	16.77%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Middle School	782	826	-5.33%
Durango 9-R	Escalante Middle School	522	516	1.16%
Denver County 1	Escalante-Biggs Academy	322	322	0.00%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park High School	375	351	6.84%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park K-5 School	424	477	-11.11%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Middle School	227	267	-14.98%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Options School	32	56	-42.86%
Littleton 6	Euclid Middle School	764	774	-1.29%
Pueblo City 60	Eva R Baca Elementary School	232	279	-16.85%
District 49	Evans CPCD Head Start	1	-	-
District 49	Evans Elementary School	500	621	-19.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen High School	975	1096	-11.04%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen Middle School	588	689	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Everitt Middle School	521	601	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Excel Academy	257	275	-6.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Excel Academy Charter School	506	516	-1.94%
Mapleton 1	Explore Pk-8	578	425	36.00%
Academy 20	Explorer Elementary School	494	511	-3.33%
Poudre R-1	Eyestone Elementary School	609	646	-5.73%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Facilities with District Run Education	12	19	-36.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Fairmount Elementary School	592	621	-4.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Fairview Elementary School	299	326	-8.28%
Denver County 1	Fairview Elementary School	174	211	-17.54%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fairview High School	1,977	2131	-7.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Falcon Bluffs Middle School	620	663	-6.49%
Cherry Creek 5	Falcon Creek Middle School	736	880	-16.36%
District 49	Falcon Elementary School of Technology	259	283	-8.48%
District 49	Falcon High School	1,279	1240	3.15%
District 49	Falcon Homeschool Program	531	422	25.83%
District 49	Falcon Middle School	924	1021	-9.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Fall River Elementary School	482	526	-8.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Family Learning Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Farrell B. Howell ECE-8 School	588	710	-17.18%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Federal Heights Elementary School	427	502	-14.94%
Littleton 6	Field Elementary School	283	292	-3.08%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fireside Elementary School	463	484	-4.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Firestone Charter Academy	626	601	4.16%
Trinidad 1	Fisher's Peak Elementary School	374	292	28.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Fitzmorris Elementary School	155	211	-26.54%
Platte Canyon 1	Fitzsimmons Middle School	169	198	-14.65%
Arriba-Flagler C-20	Flagler Public School	139	152	-8.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Flagstaff Charter Academy	774	921	-15.96%
Douglas County Re 1	Flagstone Elementary School	432	489	-11.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Flatirons Elementary School	182	211	-13.74%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming Elementary School	135	133	1.50%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming High School	82	74	10.81%
Denver County 1	Florence Crittenton High School	92	105	-12.38%
Fremont RE-2	Florence Jr./Sr. High School	598	580	3.10%
Durango 9-R	Florida Mesa Elementary School	257	296	-13.18%
Denver County 1	Florida Pitt-Waller ECE-8 School	812	845	-3.91%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Foothill Elementary School	434	457	-5.03%
Academy 20	Foothills Elementary School	398	440	-9.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Foothills Elementary School	254	293	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Force Elementary School	325	392	-17.09%
Littleton 6	Ford Elementary	653	-	-
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins High School	1,991	1856	7.27%
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins Montessori School	219	141	55.32%
Durango 9-R	Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Sheridan 2	Fort Logan Northgate	457	541	-15.53%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton High School	726	692	4.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton Middle School	457	476	-3.99%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan High School	904	938	-3.62%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan Middle School	722	713	1.26%
Poudre R-1	Fossil Ridge High School	2,263	2118	6.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Foster Dual Language PK-8	358	453	-20.97%
School District 27J	Foundations Academy	753	751	0.27%
Pueblo City 60	Fountain International Magnet School	293	341	-14.08%
Fountain 8	Fountain Middle School	1,087	1084	0.28%
Fountain 8	Fountain-Fort Carson High School	1,969	1829	7.65%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Elementary School	200	194	3.09%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler High School	116	112	3.57%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Junior High School	50	53	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Fox Creek Elementary School	474	528	-10.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Hollow Elementary School	572	657	-12.94%
Harrison 2	Fox Meadow Middle School	499	583	-14.41%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Ridge Middle School	1,125	1085	3.69%
Greeley 6	Franklin Middle School	482	552	-12.68%
Pueblo City 60	Franklin School of Innovation	323	390	-17.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Franktown Elementary School	363	364	-0.27%
East Grand 2	Fraser Valley Elementary School	241	267	-9.74%
Greeley 6	Fred Tjardes School of Innovation	123	127	-3.15%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Frederick Senior High School	1,331	1181	12.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Free Horizon Montessori	440	457	-3.72%
Colorado Springs 11	Freedom Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Fremont Elementary School	234	197	18.78%
Fremont RE-2	Fremont Elementary School	502	509	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Fremont Elementary School	394	486	-18.93%
Denver County 1	French American School of Denver	97	-	-
Widefield 3	French Elementary School	549	605	-9.26%
Summit RE-1	Frisco Elementary School	248	265	-6.42%
Greeley 6	Frontier Charter Academy	1,621	1628	-0.43%
Academy 20	Frontier Elementary School	266	313	-15.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Frontier Valley Elementary School	414	488	-15.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita 8/9 School	740	803	-7.85%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Middle School	530	609	-12.97%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Monument High School	1,382	1334	3.60%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruitvale Elementary School	399	412	-3.16%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Fulton Academy of Excellence	369	432	-14.58%
Eaton RE-2	Galeton Elementary School	115	129	-10.85%
Colorado Springs 11	Galileo School of Math and Science	435	506	-14.03%
Denver County 1	Garden Place Academy	345	358	-3.63%
Huerfano Re-1	Gardner Valley School	82	81	1.23%
Thompson R2-J	Garfield Elementary School	211	255	-17.25%
Delta County 50(J)	Garnet Mesa Elementary School	490	556	-11.87%
Woodland Park Re-2	Gateway Elementary School	301	345	-12.75%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Gateway High School	1,433	1511	-5.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Gateway School	14	29	-51.72%
Genoa-Hugo C113	Genoa-Hugo School	213	220	-3.18%
Denver County 1	George Washington High School	1,262	1188	6.23%
Clear Creek RE-1	Georgetown Community School	105	107	-1.87%
Harrison 2	Giberson Elementary School	325	385	-15.58%
Weld County RE-1	Gilcrest Elementary School	200	189	5.82%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Elementary School	203	223	-8.97%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Undivided High School	234	275	-14.91%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School High School	110	133	-17.29%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School Middle School	227	297	-23.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Glacier Peak Elementary School	440	444	-0.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Glennon Heights Elementary School	156	195	-20.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Elementary School	457	509	-10.22%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs High School	1,015	961	5.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Middle School	422	484	-12.81%
Mapleton 1	Global Intermediate Academy	337	280	20.36%
Mapleton 1	Global Leadership Academy	311	266	16.92%
Mapleton 1	Global Primary Academy	289	289	0.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Global Village Academy - Douglas County	383	389	-1.54%
Charter School Institute	Global Village Academy - Northglenn	852	883	-3.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Global Village Academy Aurora	855	947	-9.71%
Colorado Springs 11	Globe Charter School	95	176	-46.02%
District 49	GOAL Academy	5,328	4965	7.31%
Littleton 6	Goddard Middle School	589	774	-23.90%
Denver County 1	Godsman Elementary School	320	362	-11.60%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Gold Camp Elementary School	479	472	1.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Gold Hill Elementary School	17	20	-15.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Gold Rush Elementary	663	715	-7.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Golden High School	1,363	1372	-0.66%
Charter School Institute	Golden View Classical Academy	726	678	7.08%
Denver County 1	Goldrick Elementary School	328	347	-5.48%
Pueblo City 60	Goodnight Elementary School	571	639	-10.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Governor's Ranch Elementary School	331	356	-7.02%
Garfield Re-2	Graham Mesa Elementary School	419	429	-2.33%
Granada RE-1	Granada Elementary School	111	113	-1.77%
Granada RE-1	Granada Undivided High School	85	84	1.19%
East Grand 2	Granby Elementary School	331	335	-1.19%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Junction High School	1,479	1452	1.86%
Delta County 50(J)	Grand Mesa Choice Academy	85	65	30.77%
Plateau Valley 50	Grand Mesa High School	13	102	-87.25%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Mesa Middle School	604	644	-6.21%
Widefield 3	Grand Mountain School	1,027	901	13.98%
District 49	Grand Peak Academy	618	760	-18.68%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand River Academy	513	328	56.40%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Center for Family Learning	223	341	-34.60%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley High School	326	351	-7.12%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Middle School	267	282	-5.32%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Grand View Elementary	438	387	13.18%
Windsor RE-4	Grandview Elementary School	763	614	24.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Grandview High School	2,851	2947	-3.26%
Denver County 1	Grant Beacon Middle School	429	459	-6.54%
Colorado Springs 11	Grant Elementary School	361	467	-22.70%
Denver County 1	Grant Ranch ECE-8 School	344	378	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Great Work Montessori	237	210	12.86%
Greeley 6	Greeley Central High School	1,566	1532	2.22%
Greeley 6	Greeley West High School	1,732	1666	3.96%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Green Acres Elementary School	294	304	-3.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Gables Elementary School	259	209	23.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain Elementary School	209	228	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain High School	1,081	1124	-3.83%
Denver County 1	Green Valley Elementary School	636	683	-6.88%
Cherry Creek 5	Greenwood Elementary School	372	406	-8.37%
South Conejos RE-10	Guadalupe Elementary School	85	84	1.19%
Park County RE-2	Guffey Charter School	25	38	-34.21%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Elementary School	533	528	0.95%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison High School	393	394	-0.25%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Middle School	285	282	1.06%
Denver County 1	Gust Elementary School	573	630	-9.05%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Creek Middle School	345	378	-8.73%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Elementary School	351	323	8.67%
Pueblo City 60	Haaff Elementary School	293	325	-9.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Hackberry Hill Elementary School	367	409	-10.27%
Valley RE-1	Hagen Early Education Center	108	171	-36.84%
Denver County 1	Hallett Academy	262	289	-9.34%
Denver County 1	Hamilton Middle School	701	765	-8.37%
Hanover 28	Hanover Junior-Senior High School	155	133	16.54%
Adams County 14	Hanson Elementary School	267	395	-32.41%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Harmony Ridge P-8	729	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Harold Ferguson High School	114	122	-6.56%
Poudre R-1	Harris Bilingual Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Westminster Public Schools	Harris Park Elementary School	244	266	-8.27%
Harrison 2	Harrison High School	1,129	1075	5.02%
Canon City RE-1	Harrison School	603	670	-10.00%
Center 26 JT	Haskin Elementary School	290	310	-6.45%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun Elementary School	245	265	-7.55%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun High School	96	80	20.00%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden High School	99	109	-9.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Middle School	94	92	2.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Valley Elementary School	243	219	10.96%
Greeley 6	Heath Middle School	696	751	-7.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Heatherwood Elementary School	263	294	-10.54%
Greeley 6	Heiman Elementary School	712	708	0.56%
Strasburg 31J	Hemphill Middle School	281	251	11.95%
School District 27J	Henderson Elementary School	357	362	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Henry Elementary School	367	353	3.97%
Pueblo City 60	Heritage Elementary School	303	327	-7.34%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Elementary School	297	341	-12.90%
Douglas County Re 1	Heritage Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Heights Academy	393	327	20.18%
Littleton 6	Heritage High School	1,724	1691	1.95%
Hi-Plains R-23	Hi-Plains School District R-23	153	130	17.69%
Westminster Public Schools	Hidden Lake High School	489	358	36.59%
Boulder Valley Re 2	High Peaks Elementary School	259	296	-12.50%
Cherry Creek 5	High Plains Elementary School	514	566	-9.19%
Academy 20	High Plains Elementary School	255	322	-20.81%
Thompson R2-J	High Plains School	450	568	-20.77%
Charter School Institute	High Point Academy	715	715	0.00%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Elementary School	450	419	7.40%
Littleton 6	Highland Elementary School	322	301	6.98%
Garfield Re-2	Highland Elementary School	463	492	-5.89%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland High School	305	285	7.02%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Middle School	258	239	7.95%
Pueblo City 60	Highland Park Elementary School	390	487	-19.92%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Highlands Elementary School	249	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Highlands Ranch High School	1,581	1680	-5.89%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Northeast	547	546	0.18%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Southeast	528	520	1.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Highline Community Elementary School	412	493	-16.43%
Denver County 1	Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences	717	844	-15.05%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hillcrest Elementary School	391	433	-9.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Hinkley High School	1,948	2091	-6.84%
Hoehne Reorganized 3	Hoehne Schools	314	365	-13.97%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hoff Elementary School	312	224	39.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Holly Hills Elementary School	490	542	-9.59%
Holly RE-3	Holly School	275	304	-9.54%
Denver County 1	Holm Elementary School	458	475	-3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Holmes Middle School	536	624	-14.10%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Alternative School	25	10	150.00%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Elementary School	292	313	-6.71%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Senior High School	261	264	-1.14%
Academy 20	Home School Academy	563	531	6.03%
Eagle County RE 50	Homestake Peak School	521	611	-14.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Homestead Elementary School	385	473	-18.60%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy High School	1,600	590	171.19%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy Middle School	414	489	-15.34%
Littleton 6	Hopkins Elementary School	339	346	-2.02%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Horizon High School	1,999	2059	-2.91%
District 49	Horizon Middle School	709	769	-7.80%
Cherry Creek 5	Horizon Middle School	859	983	-12.61%
Salida R-32	Horizons Exploratory Academy	29	32	-9.38%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Horizons K-8 School	348	348	0.00%
Delta County 50(J)	Hotchkiss Elementary School	300	340	-11.76%
Colorado Springs 11	Howbert Elementary School	251	286	-12.24%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hudson Elementary School	297	320	-7.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hulstrom Options K-8 School	638	678	-5.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hunters Glen Elementary School	408	471	-13.38%
Jefferson County R-1	Hutchinson Elementary School	277	260	6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Hygiene Elementary School	326	351	-7.12%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Elementary School	95	110	-13.64%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Junior-Senior High School	91	90	1.11%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Elementary School	265	320	-17.19%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio High School	215	221	-2.71%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Middle School	160	184	-13.04%
Mesa County Valley 51	Independence Academy	470	415	13.25%
Cherry Creek 5	Independence Elementary School	401	501	-19.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Indian Peaks Elementary School	252	311	-18.97%
Cherry Creek 5	Indian Ridge Elementary School	474	514	-7.78%
Cherry Creek 5	Infinity Middle School	787	770	2.21%
School District 27J	Innovations & Options	199	293	-32.08%
Centennial BOCES	Innovative Connections High School	27	36	-25.00%
District 49	Inspiration View Elementary School	537	379	41.69%
Denver County 1	Inspire Elementary	537	347	54.76%
Denver County 1	International Academy of Denver at Harrington	167	221	-24.43%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Iowa Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Poudre R-1	Irish Elementary School	379	390	-2.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Iron Horse Elementary School	457	460	-0.65%
Pueblo City 60	Irving Elementary School	332	353	-5.95%
Jefferson County R-1	Irwin Preschool	20	84	-76.19%
Denver County 1	Isabella Bird Community School	454	529	-14.18%
Westminster Public Schools	Iver C. Ranum Middle School	376	592	-36.49%
Thompson R2-J	Ivy Stockwell Elementary School	389	407	-4.42%
Colorado Springs 11	Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy	518	578	-10.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Jackson Elementary School	352	370	-4.86%
Greeley 6	Jackson Elementary School	390	421	-7.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jamaica Child Development Center	151	203	-25.62%
Charter School Institute	James Irwin Charter Academy	308	326	-5.52%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Elementary School	531	535	-0.75%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter High School	416	441	-5.67%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Middle School	459	471	-2.55%
Widefield 3	James Madison Charter Academy School	96	108	-11.11%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Jamestown Elementary School	20	20	0.00%
Widefield 3	Janitell Junior High School	626	740	-15.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Transition Services School	129	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Virtual Academy	1,446	304	375.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy	1,155	1051	9.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy Elementary	764	749	2.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy High School	427	414	3.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Elementary School	228	245	-6.94%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Secondary	315	318	-0.94%
Rocky Ford R-2	Jefferson Intermediate School	214	226	-5.31%
Greeley 6	Jefferson Junior/Senior High	577	634	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Junior/Senior High School	627	672	-6.70%
Colorado Springs 11	Jenkins Middle School	763	894	-14.65%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jewell Elementary School	523	412	26.94%
Denver County 1	Joe Shoemaker School	438	471	-7.01%
Westminster Public Schools	John E. Flynn A Marzano Academy	326	291	12.03%
Denver County 1	John F Kennedy High School	908	926	-1.94%
Denver County 1	John H. Amesse Elementary	389	442	-11.99%
Huerfano Re-1	John Mall High School	123	145	-15.17%
School District 27J	John W Thimmig Elementary School	553	641	-13.73%
Littleton 6	John Wesley Powell Middle School	611	824	-25.85%
Montrose County RE-1J	Johnson Elementary School	510	511	-0.20%
Denver County 1	Johnson Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Poudre R-1	Johnson Elementary School	374	449	-16.70%
Fountain 8	Jordahl Elementary School	554	601	-7.82%
Westminster Public Schools	Josephine Hodgkins Leadership Academy	636	651	-2.30%
Academy 20	Journey K8	303	137	121.17%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg Elementary School	122	156	-21.79%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg High School	108	128	-15.63%
Las Animas RE-1	Jump Start Learning Center	43	30	43.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Juniper Ridge Community School	414	359	15.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Justice High Charter School	82	98	-16.33%
Denver County 1	Kaiser Elementary School	227	329	-31.00%
Karval RE-23	Karval Elementary School	23	37	-37.84%
Karval RE-23	Karval Junior-Senior High School	20	18	11.11%
Garfield Re-2	Kathryn Senor Elementary School	288	309	-6.80%
Adams County 14	Kearney Middle School	728	794	-8.31%
Colorado Springs 11	Keller Elementary School	380	451	-15.74%
Adams County 14	Kemp Elementary School	452	501	-9.78%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Kemper Elementary School	333	379	-12.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Ken Caryl Middle School	785	878	-10.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendallvue Elementary School	314	348	-9.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendrick Lakes Elementary School	369	393	-6.11%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Kenneth Homyak PK-8	298	281	6.05%
Yuma 1	Kenneth P Morris Elementary School	304	320	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Kenton Elementary School	417	487	-14.37%
Denver County 1	Kepner Beacon Middle School	428	398	7.54%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Elementary School	11	22	-50.00%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Undivided High School	21	26	-19.23%
Poudre R-1	Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School	830	840	-1.19%
Colorado Springs 11	King Elementary School	306	344	-11.05%
Clear Creek RE-1	King-Murphy Elementary School	124	118	5.08%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Elementary School	147	145	1.38%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa High School	74	60	23.33%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Middle School	55	47	17.02%
Denver County 1	KIPP Denver Collegiate High School	488	489	-0.20%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy	565	543	4.05%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Middle School	459	492	-6.71%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Elementary	500	484	3.31%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy	385	430	-10.47%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary	155	115	34.78%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Elementary School	43	47	-8.51%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Junior-Senior High School	57	62	-8.06%
Denver County 1	Knapp Elementary School	394	471	-16.35%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Knowledge Quest Academy	407	402	1.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Kohl Elementary School	319	384	-16.93%
Poudre R-1	Kruse Elementary School	454	530	-14.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Kullerstrand Elementary School	189	202	-6.44%
Denver County 1	Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy	873	920	-5.11%
Charter School Institute	Kwiyagat Community Academy	27	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Kyffin Elementary School	472	464	1.72%
North Conejos RE-1J	La Jara Elementary School	209	229	-8.73%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Intermediate School	418	450	-7.11%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Jr/Sr High School	530	653	-18.84%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Primary School	296	319	-7.21%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Elementary School	88	94	-6.38%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Junior-Senior High School	119	118	0.85%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Lafayette Elementary School	477	503	-5.17%
Hinsdale County RE 1	Lake City Community School	77	87	-11.49%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Elementary School	297	217	36.87%
Lake County R-1	Lake County High School	419	467	-10.28%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Intermediate School	258	297	-13.13%
Park County RE-2	Lake George Charter School	137	153	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Lake Middle School	547	402	36.07%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Lake Preschool	73	86	-15.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Lakewood High School	1,991	2046	-2.69%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar High School	466	441	5.67%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar Middle School	343	329	4.26%
School District 27J	Landmark Academy at Reunion	761	749	1.60%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lansing Elementary Community School	342	383	-10.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Child Development Center	232	261	-11.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Elementary School	396	441	-10.20%
Cherry Creek 5	Laredo Middle School	974	1052	-7.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Larkspur Elementary School	216	237	-8.86%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Elementary School	245	241	1.66%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas High School	115	138	-16.67%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Junior High School	72	73	-1.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Lasley Elementary School	293	412	-28.88%
Poudre R-1	Laurel Elementary School	434	447	-2.91%
Thompson R2-J	Laurene Edmondson Elementary School	252	223	13.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Lawrence Elementary School	261	287	-9.06%
Thompson R2-J	LEAP School	112	176	-36.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Leawood Elementary School	337	363	-7.16%
Elizabeth School District	Legacy Academy	499	465	7.31%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Legacy Elementary School	446	528	-15.53%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Legacy High School	2,376	2445	-2.82%
Denver County 1	Legacy Options High School	132	95	38.95%
Academy 20	Legacy Peak Elementary School	621	558	11.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Legacy Point Elementary School	353	358	-1.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Legend High School	2,250	2215	1.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Leman Classical Academy	1,038	748	38.77%
Denver County 1	Lena Archuleta Elementary School	454	493	-7.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Leo William Butler Elementary School	410	404	1.49%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Leroy Drive Elementary School	387	393	-1.53%
Poudre R-1	Lesher Middle School	778	792	-1.77%
Adams County 14	Lester R Arnold High School	203	253	-19.76%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Letford Elementary School	424	484	-12.40%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Lewis-Arriola Elementary School	121	128	-5.47%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Elementary School	403	475	-15.16%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer High School	1,152	1132	1.77%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Middle School	797	906	-12.03%
Poudre R-1	Liberty Common Charter School	1,150	1148	0.17%
Academy 20	Liberty High School	1,665	1656	0.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Liberty Middle School	892	1056	-15.53%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point Elementary School	406	365	11.23%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point International School	527	552	-4.53%
Liberty J-4	Liberty School	64	68	-5.88%
District 49	Liberty Tree Academy	648	501	29.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Elementary School	199	182	9.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Junior-Senior High School	249	268	-7.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Lincoln Charter Academy	779	804	-3.11%
Thompson R2-J	Lincoln Elementary School	226	248	-8.87%
Delta County 50(J)	Lincoln Elementary School	475	534	-11.05%
Denver County 1	Lincoln Elementary School	293	344	-14.83%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Lincoln High School	43	44	-2.27%
Poudre R-1	Lincoln Middle School	539	607	-11.20%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School	365	351	3.99%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Park Preschool	21	29	-27.59%
Canon City RE-1	Lincoln School of Science and Technology	259	282	-8.16%
Poudre R-1	Linton Elementary School	375	414	-9.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Little Elementary School	246	304	-19.08%
Yuma 1	Little Indians Preschool	64	64	0.00%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Little Trappers Preschool	155	182	-14.84%
Littleton 6	Littleton Academy	455	463	-1.73%
Littleton 6	Littleton High School	1,293	1242	4.11%
Littleton 6	Littleton Prep Charter School	542	584	-7.19%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Lochbuie Elementary School	277	296	-6.42%
Littleton 6	Lois Lenski Elementary School	409	541	-24.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Loma Elementary School	237	304	-22.04%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Elementary School	46	55	-16.36%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Middle School	37	34	8.82%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Lone Tree Elementary	377	421	-10.45%
Salida R-32	Longfellow Elementary School	430	428	0.47%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont Estates Elementary School	309	358	-13.69%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont High School	1,275	1261	1.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longs Peak Middle School	391	458	-14.63%
Jefferson County R-1	Longview High School	16	49	-67.35%
Poudre R-1	Lopez Elementary School	362	427	-15.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lotus School for Excellence	956	916	4.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Elementary School	454	516	-12.02%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Middle School	590	653	-9.65%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland Classical School	949	917	3.49%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland High School	1,520	1595	-4.70%
Denver County 1	Lowry Elementary School	463	525	-11.81%
Thompson R2-J	Lucile Erwin Middle School	816	898	-9.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Lukas Elementary School	247	324	-23.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Lumberg Elementary School	316	400	-21.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Elementary School	285	312	-8.65%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Middle/Senior High School	366	397	-7.81%
Greeley 6	Madison Elementary School	394	433	-9.01%
Colorado Springs 11	Madison Elementary School	303	347	-12.68%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Malley Drive Elementary School	442	444	-0.45%
Douglas County Re 1	Mammoth Heights Elementary	677	668	1.35%
North Conejos RE-1J	Manassa Elementary School	203	228	-10.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Manaugh Elementary School	229	264	-13.26%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Early Learning Center	32	43	-25.58%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Elementary School	179	209	-14.35%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos High School	142	138	2.90%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Middle School	132	117	12.82%
Jefferson County R-1	Mandalay Middle School	486	575	-15.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Manhattan Middle School of the Arts and Academics	430	541	-20.52%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Elementary School	405	453	-10.60%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs High School	465	474	-1.90%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Middle School	282	355	-20.56%
Colorado Springs 11	Mann Middle School	397	434	-8.53%
Jefferson County R-1	Manning Options School	678	675	0.44%
Denver County 1	Manual High School	313	299	4.68%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Elementary School	50	68	-26.47%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Junior-Senior High School	101	101	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Maple Grove Elementary School	326	337	-3.26%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mapleton Early Childhood Center	92	109	-15.60%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Early College High School	279	266	4.89%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts	541	702	-22.93%
Greeley 6	Maplewood Elementary School	548	611	-10.31%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Marble Charter School	42	48	-12.50%
Denver County 1	Marie L. Greenwood Academy	527	555	-5.05%
Denver County 1	Marrama Elementary School	478	491	-2.65%
Monte Vista C-8	Marsh Elementary School	150	157	-4.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Marshdale Elementary School	307	314	-2.23%
Widefield 3	Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School	471	467	0.86%
Greeley 6	Martinez Elementary School	438	497	-11.87%
Colorado Springs 11	Martinez Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Thompson R2-J	Mary Blair Elementary School	188	261	-27.97%
School District 27J	Mary E Pennock Elementary School	642	643	-0.16%
Denver County 1	Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy	154	163	-5.52%
Denver County 1	Maxwell Elementary School	651	649	0.31%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Maybell School	19	13	46.15%
Colorado Springs 11	McAuliffe Elementary	485	555	-12.61%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe International School	1,558	1589	-1.95%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe Manual Middle School	260	310	-16.13%
McClave Re-2	McClave Elementary School	124	139	-10.79%
McClave Re-2	McClave Undivided High School	113	90	25.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	McElwain Elementary School	362	431	-16.01%
Denver County 1	McGlone Academy	885	913	-3.07%
Poudre R-1	McGraw Elementary School	400	435	-8.05%
Canon City RE-1	McKinley Elementary School	223	175	27.43%
Denver County 1	McKinley-Thatcher Elementary School	228	228	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	McLain Community High School	397	392	1.28%
Denver County 1	McMeen Elementary School	555	501	10.78%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Elementary School	717	640	12.03%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead High School	1,083	1147	-5.58%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Middle School	533	478	11.51%
Mapleton 1	Meadow Community School	411	503	-18.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Meadow Point Elementary School	422	498	-15.26%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Meadow Ridge Elementary School	378	424	-10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Meadow View Elementary School	514	488	5.33%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Meadowlark School	668	680	-1.76%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Meadowood Child Development Center	213	277	-23.10%
Greeley 6	Meeker Elementary School	479	504	-4.96%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker Elementary School	340	375	-9.33%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker High School	226	197	14.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Meiklejohn Elementary	469	520	-9.81%
Lamar Re-2	Melvin Hendrickson Development Center	113	123	-8.13%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Meridian Elementary School	549	609	-9.85%
District 49	Meridian Ranch Elementary School	663	677	-2.07%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Elementary School	159	166	-4.22%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Junior Senior High School	146	136	7.35%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Merit Academy	287	-	-
Denver County 1	Merrill Middle School	601	561	7.13%
Fountain 8	Mesa Elementary School	539	524	2.86%
Westminster Public Schools	Mesa Elementary School	297	305	-2.62%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mesa Elementary School	247	261	-5.36%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Mesa Elementary School	288	343	-16.03%
Douglas County Re 1	Mesa Middle School	998	865	15.38%
Widefield 3	Mesa Ridge High School	1,234	1325	-6.87%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa Valley Community School	400	396	1.01%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa View Elementary School	359	384	-6.51%
Westminster Public Schools	Metropolitan Arts Academy	344	332	3.61%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami-Yoder Middle/High School	166	151	9.93%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami/Yoder Elementary School	147	137	7.30%
East Grand 2	Middle Park High School	412	426	-3.29%
Colorado Springs 11	Midland Elementary School	128	189	-32.28%
Adams County 14	Mildred L Sanville Preschool	53	83	-36.14%
Durango 9-R	Miller Middle School	470	506	-7.11%
Jefferson County R-1	Miller Special Education	100	101	-0.99%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Elementary School	479	617	-22.37%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Middle School	661	814	-18.80%
Pueblo City 60	Minnequa Elementary School	299	447	-33.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Mission Viejo Elementary School	552	576	-4.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Mitchell Elementary School	531	570	-6.84%
Colorado Springs 11	Mitchell High School	1,040	1174	-11.41%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Moffat County High School	566	549	3.10%
Moffat 2	Moffat Prek-12 School	134	139	-3.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Molholm Elementary School	254	332	-23.49%
Adams County 14	Monaco Elementary School	249	287	-13.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch High School	1,515	1664	-8.95%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch K-8 School	697	765	-8.89%
Denver County 1	Monarch Montessori	220	205	7.32%
Greeley 6	Monfort Elementary School	456	478	-4.60%
Thompson R2-J	Monroe Elementary School	287	242	18.60%
Colorado Springs 11	Monroe Elementary School	364	433	-15.94%
Denver County 1	Montbello Career and Technical High School	95	72	31.94%
Denver County 1	Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment	352	400	-12.00%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Middle School	239	221	8.14%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista On-Line Academy	93	114	-18.42%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Senior High School	265	270	-1.85%
Mapleton 1	Monterey Community School	366	-	-
Harrison 2	Monterey Elementary School	248	323	-23.22%
Charter School Institute	Montessori del Mundo Charter School	315	359	-12.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Montessori Peaks Charter Academy	425	476	-10.71%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez High School	634	628	0.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez Middle School	539	594	-9.26%
Montrose County RE-1J	Montrose High School	1,396	1321	5.68%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Montview Math & Health Sciences Elementary School	304	352	-13.64%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy	693	-	-
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy Secondary School	475	966	-50.83%
Mesa County Valley 51	Monument Ridge Elementary School	328	-	-
Charter School Institute	Monument View Montessori Charter School	61	46	32.61%
Littleton 6	Moody Elementary School	291	356	-18.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Moore Middle School	492	583	-15.61%
Denver County 1	Morey Middle School	418	354	18.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Mortensen Elementary School	317	369	-14.09%
Pueblo City 60	Morton Elementary School	366	441	-17.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Mount Carbon Elementary School	398	443	-10.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mount Garfield Middle School	565	641	-11.86%
Canon City RE-1	Mount View Core Knowledge Charter School	252	252	0.00%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Middle School	275	245	12.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Mountain Phoenix Community School	620	664	-6.63%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain Range High School	1,808	1892	-4.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Ridge Middle School	925	1088	-14.98%
Academy 20	Mountain Ridge Middle School	766	989	-22.55%
Poudre R-1	Mountain Sage Community School	287	318	-9.75%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Song Community School	403	370	8.92%
Mountain Valley RE 1	Mountain Valley School	185	170	8.82%
District 49	Mountain View Academy	354	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain View Elementary School	330	314	5.10%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain View Elementary School	569	598	-4.85%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mountain View Elementary School	303	322	-5.90%
Windsor RE-4	Mountain View Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Academy 20	Mountain View Elementary School	558	604	-7.62%
Thompson R2-J	Mountain View High School	1,196	1172	2.05%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Community School	576	550	4.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Mountain Vista Elementary School	661	685	-3.50%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Vista High School	2,365	2381	-0.67%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Homeschool Academy	324	321	0.93%
Fountain 8	Mountainside Elementary School	426	473	-9.94%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Mrachek Middle School	904	974	-7.19%
Denver County 1	Munroe Elementary School	375	421	-10.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Murphy Creek K-8 School	671	724	-7.32%
Thompson R2-J	Namaqua Elementary School	243	314	-22.61%
West End RE-2	Naturita Elementary School	138	132	4.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Elementary School	202	253	-20.16%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Middle-Senior High School	253	247	2.43%
Durango 9-R	Needham Elementary School	410	427	-3.98%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nevin Platt Middle School	454	532	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	New America School	113	152	-25.66%
Charter School Institute	New America School - Aurora	169	285	-40.70%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	New America School - Thornton	244	337	-27.60%
Jefferson County R-1	New Classical Academy at Vivian	144	140	2.86%
Mesa County Valley 51	New Emerson School at Columbus	141	141	0.00%
Charter School Institute	New Legacy Charter School	84	98	-14.29%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	New Meridian High School	98	114	-14.04%
Academy 20	New Summit Charter Academy	601	554	8.48%
Thompson R2-J	New Vision Charter School	960	713	34.64%
Boulder Valley Re 2	New Vista High School	286	326	-12.27%
Denver County 1	Newlon Elementary School	301	375	-19.73%
Littleton 6	Newton Middle School	738	631	16.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center	263	249	5.62%
Mesa County Valley 51	Nisley Elementary School	345	416	-17.07%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot Elementary School	420	483	-13.04%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot High School	1,287	1177	9.35%
Denver County 1	Noel Community Arts School	390	425	-8.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Normandy Elementary School	305	363	-15.98%
Jefferson County R-1	North Arvada Middle School	479	602	-20.43%
North Conejos RE-1J	North Conejos Alternative Program	26	42	-38.10%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork High School	300	172	74.42%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork Montessori @ Crawford	130	145	-10.34%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork School of Integrated Studies	118	75	57.33%
Denver County 1	North High School	1,711	1350	26.74%
Denver County 1	North High School Engagement Center	96	104	-7.69%
Pueblo County 70	North Mesa Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Colorado Springs 11	North Middle School	550	667	-17.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	North Middle School Health Sciences and Technology Campus	633	651	-2.76%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Mor Elementary School	391	451	-13.30%
North Park R-1	North Park School	173	179	-3.35%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	North Routt Charter School	114	99	15.15%
Douglas County Re 1	North Star Academy	673	667	0.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Star Elementary School	360	418	-13.88%
Weld County RE-1	North Valley Middle School	235	245	-4.08%
Mapleton 1	North Valley School for Young Adults	90	64	40.63%
Denver County 1	Northeast Early College	576	463	24.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Northeast Elementary School	289	288	0.35%
School District 27J	Northeast Elementary School	524	584	-10.27%
Denver County 1	Northfield High School	1,570	990	58.59%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn High School	2,012	2064	-2.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn Middle School	773	856	-9.70%
Pueblo City 60	Northmoor Preschool	32	59	-45.76%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Northridge Elementary School	313	328	-4.57%
Douglas County Re 1	Northridge Elementary School	594	632	-6.01%
Greeley 6	Northridge High School	1,199	1157	3.63%
Montrose County RE-1J	Northside Elementary School	337	353	-4.53%
Norwood R-2J	Norwood Public Schools	199	199	0.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla High School	63	70	-10.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla Middle School	27	32	-15.63%
Poudre R-1	O'Dea Elementary School	442	469	-5.76%
Harrison 2	Oak Creek Elementary School	190	208	-8.65%
Montrose County RE-1J	Oak Grove Elementary School	390	399	-2.26%
Denver County 1	Oakland Elementary	277	279	-0.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Oberon Middle School	674	742	-9.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Odyssey Early College and Career Options	304	277	9.75%
District 49	Odyssey Elementary School	397	455	-12.75%
Denver County 1	Odyssey School of Denver	278	233	19.31%
Poudre R-1	Olander Elementary School	363	433	-16.17%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Elementary School	466	434	7.37%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe High School	272	283	-3.89%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Middle School	239	231	3.46%
Denver County 1	Omar D Blair Charter School	679	716	-5.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Options School	796	984	-19.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Options School	535	668	-19.91%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Avenue Elementary School	361	419	-13.84%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Mesa Middle School	467	488	-4.30%
Westminster Public Schools	Orchard Park Academy	529	353	49.86%
Alamosa RE-11J	Ortega Middle School	537	519	3.47%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Orton Academy	317	-	-
Harrison 2	Otero Elementary School	283	317	-10.73%
School District 27J	Otho E Stuart Middle School	741	791	-6.32%
Otis R-3	Otis Elementary School	96	105	-8.57%
Otis R-3	Otis Junior-Senior High School	115	111	3.60%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Elementary School	86	105	-18.10%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Middle School	62	13	376.92%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Senior High School	41	52	-21.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Outback Preschool	89	79	12.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Overland High School	2,159	2379	-9.25%
School District 27J	Overland Trail Middle School	546	619	-11.79%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Peak Open School	122	102	19.61%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Elementary School	541	598	-9.53%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs High School	470	490	-4.08%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Middle School	525	552	-4.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Palisade High School	1,108	1091	1.56%
Denver County 1	Palmer Elementary School	258	285	-9.47%
Colorado Springs 11	Palmer High School	1,553	1622	-4.25%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Lake Elementary School	303	361	-16.07%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Ridge High School	1,210	1218	-0.66%
Harrison 2	Panorama Middle School	469	619	-24.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Paonia Elementary School	253	213	18.78%
West End RE-2	Paradox Valley Charter School	44	38	15.79%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Learning Center	364	187	94.65%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Preschool	126	-	-
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Paris Elementary School	288	355	-18.87%
Durango 9-R	Park Elementary School	411	421	-2.38%
Denver County 1	Park Hill School	684	720	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Park Lane Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Pueblo City 60	Park View Elementary School	292	369	-20.87%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Core Knowledge Charter School	703	702	0.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Performing Arts	657	735	-10.61%
Lamar Re-2	Parkview Elementary School	259	292	-11.30%
Rangely RE-4	Parkview Elementary School	225	265	-15.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Parmalee Elementary School	261	313	-16.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Parr Elementary School	245	312	-21.47%
Denver County 1	Pascual Ledoux Academy	205	228	-10.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Pathways Future Center	386	304	26.97%
Fountain 8	Patriot Elementary School	576	644	-10.56%
District 49	Patriot High School	78	103	-24.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Patterson International School	357	453	-21.19%
Pawnee RE-12	Pawnee School PK-12	70	82	-14.63%
Littleton 6	Peabody Elementary School	156	379	-58.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Peak Expeditionary - Pennington	228	197	15.74%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Peak to Peak Charter School	1,448	1450	-0.14%
Montrose County RE-1J	Peak Virtual Academy	254	185	37.30%
Cherry Creek 5	Peakview Elementary School	542	572	-5.24%
Huerfano Re-1	Peakview School	307	315	-2.54%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pear Park Elementary School	453	450	0.67%
Jefferson County R-1	Peck Elementary School	166	241	-31.12%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Elementary School	109	105	3.81%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Junior-Senior High School	51	60	-15.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Peiffer Elementary School	234	262	-10.69%
Fremont RE-2	Penrose Elementary School	326	309	5.50%
Colorado Springs 11	Penrose Elementary School	349	404	-13.61%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Peoria Elementary School	365	456	-19.96%
Weld County RE-1	Pete Mirich Elementary School	378	394	-4.06%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton College Academy	28	-	-
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Elementary School	252	269	-6.32%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Junior High School	95	90	5.56%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Online Academy	29	31	-6.45%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Senior High School	210	236	-11.02%
District 49	Pikes Peak Early College	134	179	-25.14%
Harrison 2	Pikes Peak Elementary School	307	355	-13.52%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pikes Peak Online School	392	778	-49.61%
District 49	Pikes Peak School Expeditionary Learning	392	407	-3.69%
Academy 20	Pine Creek High School	1,808	1631	10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Grove Elementary School	510	587	-13.12%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Lane Elementary	774	756	2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Pine Ridge Elementary School	754	771	-2.20%
Widefield 3	Pinello Elementary School	286	322	-11.18%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Pinon Valley Elementary School	297	315	-5.71%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Pioneer Bilingual Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Pioneer Elementary School	438	483	-9.32%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Pioneer Elementary School	281	330	-14.85%
Academy 20	Pioneer Elementary School	334	407	-17.94%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Pioneer Ridge Elementary School	619	591	4.74%
District 49	Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy	220	-	-
Denver County 1	Place Bridge Academy	660	851	-22.44%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Elementary School	97	30	223.33%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Junior-Senior High School	40	27	48.15%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Elementary School	145	123	17.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley High School	112	101	10.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Junior High School	35	68	-48.53%
Platte Canyon 1	Platte Canyon High School	251	240	4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Platte River Charter Academy	543	565	-3.89%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Elementary School	521	507	2.76%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley High School	329	336	-2.08%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Middle School	228	250	-8.80%
Weld County RE-1	Platteville Elementary School	329	367	-10.35%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Pleasant View Elementary School	33	31	6.45%
Pueblo County 70	Pleasant View Middle School	443	448	-1.12%
Denver County 1	Polaris Elementary School	330	330	0.00%
Poudre R-1	Polaris Expeditionary Learning School	389	400	-2.75%
Cherry Creek 5	Polton Community Elementary School	463	544	-14.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pomona Elementary School	351	333	5.41%
Montrose County RE-1J	Pomona Elementary School	334	388	-13.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Pomona High School	1,185	1317	-10.02%
Thompson R2-J	Ponderosa Elementary	390	402	-2.99%
Cherry Creek 5	Ponderosa Elementary School	517	618	-16.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Ponderosa High School	1,464	1440	1.67%
Poudre R-1	Poudre Community Academy	274	256	7.03%
Poudre R-1	Poudre High School	1,961	1865	5.15%
Jefferson County R-1	Powderhorn Elementary School	448	541	-17.19%
District 49	Power Technical Early College	340	317	7.26%
Strasburg 31J	Prairie Creek High School	16	12	33.33%
Douglas County Re 1	Prairie Crossing Elementary School	699	701	-0.29%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Elementary School	89	110	-19.09%
Hanover 28	Prairie Heights Elementary School	128	120	6.67%
Greeley 6	Prairie Heights Middle School	587	653	-10.11%
Academy 20	Prairie Hills Elementary School	398	405	-1.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prairie Hills Elementary School	435	495	-12.12%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Junior-Senior High School	102	112	-8.93%
Cherry Creek 5	Prairie Middle School	1,479	1630	-9.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Prairie Ridge Elementary School	430	454	-5.29%
School District 27J	Prairie View High School	1,724	1771	-2.65%
School District 27J	Prairie View Middle School	654	611	7.04%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Prairie Winds Elementary School	335	352	-4.83%
Pueblo County 70	Prairie Winds Elementary School	433	482	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Prep Academy	43	72	-40.28%
Mapleton 1	Preschool on Poze	192	-	-
Poudre R-1	Preston Middle School	982	1132	-13.25%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Elementary School	116	106	9.43%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Junior-Senior High School	112	94	19.15%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Elementary School	35	28	25.00%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett High School	19	21	-9.52%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Middle School	12	11	9.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prospect Ridge Academy	1,463	1392	5.10%
Jefferson County R-1	Prospect Valley Elementary School	414	453	-8.61%
Poudre R-1	PSD Global Academy	496	266	86.47%
Poudre R-1	PSD Mountain Schools	109	120	-9.17%
Poudre R-1	PSD Options School	61	134	-54.48%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Academy of Arts	595	688	-13.52%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Charter School for the Arts & Sciences	539	454	18.72%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pueblo Classical Academy	123	-	-
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo County High School	1,187	1109	7.03%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo School for Arts & Sciences at Fulton Heights	247	227	8.81%
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo West High School	1,401	1394	0.50%
Poudre R-1	Putnam Elementary School	316	330	-4.24%
Colorado Springs 11	Queen Palmer Elementary School	172	233	-26.18%
Mesa County Valley 51	R-5 High School	274	273	0.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Elementary School	252	275	-8.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Valley Senior High School	1,813	1843	-1.63%
Academy 20	Rampart High School	1,455	1625	-10.46%
Academy 20	Ranch Creek Elementary	550	559	-1.61%
Douglas County Re 1	Ranch View Middle School	820	795	3.14%
Windsor RE-4	Range View Elementary	715	746	-4.16%
Rangely RE-4	Rangely Junior/Senior High School	269	253	6.32%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rangeview High School	2,107	2253	-6.48%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Ray E Kilmer Elementary School	377	383	-1.57%
Denver County 1	Reach Charter School	118	140	-15.71%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Canyon High School	160	189	-15.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Red Hawk Elementary	614	629	-2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Red Hawk Ridge Elementary School	540	618	-12.62%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Hill Elementary School	355	355	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Red Rocks Elementary School	265	288	-7.99%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Sandstone Elementary School	257	197	30.46%
Mesa County Valley 51	Redlands Middle School	535	600	-10.83%
Douglas County Re 1	Redstone Elementary School	417	488	-14.55%
District 49	Remington Elementary School	628	654	-3.98%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Expedition Learn Outward Bound School	389	395	-1.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Secondary School	330	327	0.92%
Denver County 1	Respect Academy	93	90	3.33%
School District 27J	Reunion Elementary School	790	724	9.12%
Revere School District	Revere Elementary	73	85	-14.12%
Revere School District	Revere Junior-Senior High School	60	54	11.11%
Charter School Institute	Ricardo Flores Magon Academy	251	261	-3.83%
Poudre R-1	Rice Elementary School	521	482	8.09%
Poudre R-1	Ridgeview Classical Charter Schools	706	690	2.32%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Ridgeview Elementary School	291	286	1.75%
District 49	Ridgeview Elementary School	572	684	-16.37%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway High School	107	107	0.00%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Middle School	73	74	-1.35%
Poudre R-1	Riffenburgh Elementary School	458	557	-17.77%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle High School	779	773	0.78%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle Middle School	633	635	-0.31%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rim Rock Elementary School	327	624	-47.60%
Denver County 1	RiseUp Community School	97	129	-24.81%
Pueblo City 60	Risley International Academy of Innovation	403	447	-9.84%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Riverdale Elementary School	403	460	-12.39%
School District 27J	Riverdale Ridge High School	1,332	889	49.83%
Garfield Re-2	Riverside School	474	463	2.38%
Durango 9-R	Riverview Elementary School	444	467	-4.93%
Thompson R2-J	Riverview PK-8	490	-	-
Roaring Fork RE-1	Riverview School	364	364	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Roaring Fork High School	385	385	0.00%
Denver County 1	Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy	78	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Canyon High School	2,376	2310	2.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Ridge Elementary School	469	534	-12.17%
Academy 20	Rockrimmon Elementary School	354	356	-0.56%
Rocky Ford R-2	Rocky Ford Junior/Senior High School	310	327	-5.20%
Douglas County Re 1	Rocky Heights Middle School	1,225	1346	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen	376	320	17.50%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy	1,096	1102	-0.54%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy Homeschool	479	515	-6.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Deaf School	72	62	16.13%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	443	474	-6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	353	400	-11.75%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	320	386	-17.10%
Poudre R-1	Rocky Mountain High School	2,087	2024	3.11%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Berkeley	323	304	6.25%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Creekside	581	608	-4.44%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rocky Mountain Prep: Fletcher	545	545	0.00%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Southwest	413	490	-15.71%
Expeditionary BOCES	Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning	393	368	6.79%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Top Middle School	1,029	1120	-8.13%
School District 27J	Rodger Quist Middle School	916	766	19.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Rogers Elementary School	294	353	-16.71%
Cherry Creek 5	Rolling Hills Elementary School	565	551	2.54%
Pueblo City 60	Roncalli Stem Academy	470	540	-12.96%
Jefferson County R-1	Rooney Ranch Elementary School	469	525	-10.67%
Colorado Springs 11	Roosevelt Charter Academy	444	582	-23.71%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Roosevelt High School	1,062	1061	0.09%
Adams County 14	Rose Hill Elementary School	348	379	-8.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Rose Stein International Elementary	273	286	-4.55%
Charter School Institute	Ross Montessori School	310	292	6.16%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Elementary School	371	375	-1.07%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Intermediate	406	392	3.57%
Colorado Springs 11	Rudy Elementary School	349	331	5.44%
Elizabeth School District	Running Creek Elementary School	305	298	2.35%
Littleton 6	Runyon Elementary School	450	461	-2.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Russell Middle School	563	617	-8.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Ryan Elementary School	349	378	-7.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Ryan Elementary School	485	551	-11.98%
Pueblo County 70	Rye Elementary School	299	346	-13.58%
Pueblo County 70	Rye High School	252	216	16.67%
Greeley 6	S. Christa McAuliffe STEM Academy	885	868	1.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Sabin Middle School	659	774	-14.86%
Denver County 1	Sabin World School	613	696	-11.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sable Elementary School	402	417	-3.60%
Douglas County Re 1	Saddle Ranch Elementary School	341	434	-21.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Sage Canyon Elementary	584	745	-21.61%
Cherry Creek 5	Sagebrush Elementary School	424	420	0.95%
Douglas County Re 1	Sagewood Middle School	805	884	-8.94%
Greeley 6	Salida del Sol Academy	593	665	-10.83%
Salida R-32	Salida Early Childhood Center	66	86	-23.26%
Salida R-32	Salida High School	391	368	6.25%
Salida R-32	Salida Middle School	351	372	-5.65%
Charter School Institute	Salida Montessori Charter School	117	86	36.05%
Denver County 1	Samuels Elementary School	456	491	-7.13%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	San Juan Mountain School	54	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sanborn Elementary School	265	372	-28.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Sand Creek Elementary School	382	454	-15.86%
District 49	Sand Creek High School	1,146	1133	1.15%
Harrison 2	Sand Creek International School	590	505	16.83%
Littleton 6	Sandburg Elementary School	468	441	6.12%
Denver County 1	Sandra Todd-Williams Academy	130	135	-3.70%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sandrock Elementary	313	309	1.29%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Elementary School	221	220	0.45%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Junior/Senior High School	148	133	11.28%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Elementary School	123	136	-9.56%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Undivided High School	123	149	-17.45%
Thompson R2-J	Sarah Milner Elementary School	280	258	8.53%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Elementary School	186	196	-5.10%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Junior High School	48	54	-11.11%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Senior High School	96	104	-7.69%
Mesa County Valley 51	Scenic Elementary School	246	245	0.41%
Denver County 1	Schmitt Elementary School	199	269	-26.02%
Greeley 6	Scott Elementary School	512	530	-3.40%
Colorado Springs 11	Scott Elementary School	490	617	-20.58%
School District 27J	SD 27J Preschool at the Brighton LRC	97	80	21.25%
School District 27J	Second Creek Elementary School	869	750	15.87%
Jefferson County R-1	Secrest Elementary School	261	306	-14.71%
Douglas County Re 1	Sedalia Elementary School	205	254	-19.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Semper Elementary School	303	325	-6.77%
Dolores County RE No.2	Seventh Street Elementary School	115	110	4.55%
Windsor RE-4	Severance High School	808	360	124.44%
Windsor RE-4	Severance Middle School	761	640	18.91%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Shadow Ridge Middle School	768	866	-11.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Shaffer Elementary School	514	518	-0.77%
Westminster Public Schools	Shaw Heights Middle School	442	568	-22.18%
Greeley 6	Shawsheen Elementary School	362	418	-13.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Shelledy Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Shelton Elementary School	405	476	-14.92%
Poudre R-1	Shepardson Elementary School	432	426	1.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Sheridan Green Elementary School	269	318	-15.41%
Sheridan 2	Sheridan High School	320	348	-8.05%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Sherman Early Childhood Center	439	475	-7.58%
Westminster Public Schools	Sherrelwood Elementary School	237	279	-15.05%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Side Creek Elementary School	488	496	-1.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Sierra Elementary School	445	476	-6.51%
Sierra Grande R-30	Sierra Grande K-12 School	259	269	-3.72%
Harrison 2	Sierra High School	945	848	11.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Sierra Middle School	761	875	-13.03%
Pueblo County 70	Sierra Vista Elementary School	459	520	-11.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Creek Elementary	574	605	-5.12%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Silver Creek High School	1,274	1349	-5.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Hills Middle School	1,021	1088	-6.16%
Summit RE-1	Silverthorne Elementary School	336	312	7.69%
Silverton 1	Silverton Elementary School	47	45	4.44%
Silverton 1	Silverton High School	24	19	26.32%
Silverton 1	Silverton Middle School	15	17	-11.76%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Elementary School	142	168	-15.48%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla High School	97	90	7.78%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Junior High School	86	77	11.69%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Elementary School	374	360	3.89%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Preschool	71	69	2.90%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sixth Avenue Elementary School	581	447	29.98%
Denver County 1	Skinner Middle School	644	634	1.58%
Center 26 JT	Skoglund Middle School	141	142	-0.70%
Pueblo County 70	Sky View Middle School	584	663	-11.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Sky Vista Middle School	920	929	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Skyline High School	1,487	1482	0.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Skyview Academy	1,257	1292	-2.71%
Windsor RE-4	Skyview Elementary School	602	455	32.31%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Skyview Elementary School	388	431	-9.98%
District 49	Skyview Middle School	1,005	1058	-5.01%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Skyway Park Elementary School	284	312	-8.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Slater Elementary School	230	268	-14.18%
Denver County 1	Slavens K-8 School	732	748	-2.14%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Sleeping Giant School	362	-	-
Denver County 1	Smith Elementary School	412	435	-5.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Smoky Hill High School	2,133	2160	-1.25%
Summit RE-1	Snowy Peaks Junior/Senior High School	97	80	21.25%
Sheridan 2	SOAR Academy	90	94	-4.26%
Denver County 1	SOAR at Green Valley Ranch	467	437	6.86%
Harrison 2	Soaring Eagles Elementary School	538	559	-3.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Soaring Hawk Elementary School	467	577	-19.06%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Soaring Heights PK-8	1,198	1187	0.93%
Jefferson County R-1	Sobesky Academy	124	123	0.81%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Soda Creek Elementary School	407	526	-22.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Sopris Elementary School	345	397	-13.10%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco High School	102	104	-1.92%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Middle School	72	70	2.86%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Preschool at Yampa	36	33	9.09%
School District 27J	South Elementary School	387	445	-13.03%
Denver County 1	South High School	1,771	1636	8.25%
Pueblo City 60	South High School	947	943	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	South Lakewood Elementary School	324	397	-18.39%
Pueblo County 70	South Mesa Elementary School	344	398	-13.57%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	South Middle School	357	760	-53.03%
Pueblo City 60	South Park Elementary School	336	358	-6.15%
Park County RE-2	South Park High School	124	126	-1.59%
Park County RE-2	South Park Middle School	99	120	-17.50%
Douglas County Re 1	South Ridge Elementary An IB World School	440	595	-26.05%
South Routt RE 3	South Routt Elementary School	129	118	9.32%
Weld County RE-1	South Valley Middle School	182	211	-13.74%
School District 27J	Southeast Elementary School	513	490	4.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Southern Hills Middle School	482	530	-9.06%
Denver County 1	Southmoor Elementary School	403	441	-8.62%
San Juan BOCES	Southwest Colorado eSchool	52	61	-14.75%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Southwest Open Charter School	133	122	9.02%
Colorado Springs 11	Spark Online Academy	295	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Spark! Discovery Preschool	250	304	-17.76%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Junior/Senior High School	123	136	-9.56%
District 49	Springs Ranch Elementary School	600	579	3.63%
District 49	Springs Studio for Academic Excellence	424	402	5.47%
Widefield 3	Sproul Junior High School	552	627	-11.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Community Montessori School	258	258	0.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain LaunchED Virtual Academy	585	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Virtual High School	61	128	-52.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Standley Lake High School	1,221	1318	-7.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stargate Charter School	1,494	1421	5.14%
Adams County 14	Stars Early Learning Center	84	90	-6.67%
Charter School Institute	Steamboat Montessori	160	161	-0.62%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs High School	847	839	0.95%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs Middle School	536	644	-16.77%
Denver County 1	Steck Elementary School	321	352	-8.81%
Denver County 1	Stedman Elementary School	426	337	26.41%
Denver County 1	Steele Elementary School	450	489	-7.98%
Colorado Springs 11	Steele Elementary School	245	282	-13.12%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stellar Elementary School	434	513	-15.40%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Lab	710	717	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Launch	770	791	-2.65%
Douglas County Re 1	STEM School Highlands Ranch	1,670	1750	-4.57%
Denver County 1	Stephen Knight Center for Early Education	283	316	-10.44%
Valley RE-1	Sterling High School	448	464	-3.45%
Valley RE-1	Sterling Middle School	406	442	-8.14%
District 49	Stetson Elementary School	471	521	-9.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Stevens Elementary School	328	343	-4.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Stober Elementary School	239	250	-4.40%
Charter School Institute	Stone Creek School	314	321	-2.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Stone Mountain Elementary	571	672	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Stony Creek Elementary School	372	404	-7.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Stott Elementary School	290	306	-5.23%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg Elementary School	536	508	5.51%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg High School	338	309	9.39%
Harrison 2	Stratmoor Hills Elementary School	213	188	13.30%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Elementary School	126	137	-8.03%
Colorado Springs 11	Stratton Elementary School	290	329	-11.85%
Harrison 2	Stratton Meadows Elementary School	355	356	-0.28%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Middle School	43	54	-20.37%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Senior High School	62	48	29.17%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Strawberry Park Elementary School	348	478	-27.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Federal	360	355	1.41%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Green Valley Ranch	367	359	2.23%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Kepner	209	249	-16.06%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Lake	208	284	-26.76%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Montbello	171	243	-29.63%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Rise	537	513	4.68%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Ruby Hill	439	484	-9.30%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Smart Academy	510	484	5.37%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Sunnyside	190	254	-25.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Westwood	311	333	-6.61%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stukey Elementary School	351	392	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Summit Academy	208	222	-6.31%
Summit RE-1	Summit Cove Elementary School	240	250	-4.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Summit Elementary School	348	400	-13.00%
Woodland Park Re-2	Summit Elementary School	264	353	-25.21%
Summit RE-1	Summit High School	1,038	952	9.03%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Summit Middle Charter School	356	359	-0.84%
Summit RE-1	Summit Middle School	814	826	-1.45%
Jefferson County R-1	Summit Ridge Middle School	1,006	1019	-1.28%
Douglas County Re 1	Summit View Elementary School	450	523	-13.96%
Durango 9-R	Sunnyside Elementary School	119	154	-22.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Sunrise Elementary School	487	512	-4.88%
Widefield 3	Sunrise Elementary School	512	586	-12.63%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sunset Elementary School	322	376	-14.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sunset Middle School	395	453	-12.80%
Pueblo City 60	Sunset Park Elementary School	401	467	-14.13%
Westminster Public Schools	Sunset Ridge Elementary School	289	314	-7.96%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Superior Elementary School	453	435	4.14%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy	603	550	9.64%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy High School	152	149	2.01%
Denver County 1	Swansea Elementary School	416	467	-10.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Swanson Elementary School	227	259	-12.36%
Denver County 1	Swigert International School	571	587	-2.73%
Swink 33	Swink Elementary School	177	168	5.36%
Swink 33	Swink Junior-Senior High School	135	153	-11.76%
Widefield 3	Talbott STEAM Innovation School	353	421	-16.15%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Tarver Elementary School	497	475	4.63%
Poudre R-1	Tavelli Elementary School	572	608	-5.92%
Mesa County Valley 51	Taylor Elementary School	346	361	-4.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Taylor Elementary School	176	229	-23.14%
Academy 20	TCA College Pathways	520	522	-0.38%
Dolores RE-4A	Teddy Bear Preschool	65	58	12.07%
Denver County 1	Teller Elementary School	503	529	-4.91%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Elementary School	163	171	-4.68%
Telluride R-1	Telluride High School	321	270	18.89%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Intermediate School	239	276	-13.41%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Middle School	153	168	-8.93%
Westminster Public Schools	Tennyson Knolls Preparatory School	378	318	18.87%
Center 26 JT	The Academic Recovery Center of San Luis Valley	23	5	360.00%
Colorado Springs 11	The Bijou School	128	152	-15.79%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Charter	2,144	2196	-2.37%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy High School	552	596	-7.38%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Middle School	392	433	-9.47%
Pueblo County 70	The Connect Charter School	258	279	-7.53%
Cherry Creek 5	The Cottage at Holly Ridge	113	146	-22.60%
Academy 20	The Da Vinci Academy School	437	462	-5.41%
Buena Vista R-31	The Grove, BVSD's Early Learning Program	88	99	-11.11%
Cherry Creek 5	The Journey Preschool	114	65	75.38%
Durango 9-R	The Juniper School	143	138	3.62%
Charter School Institute	The Pinnacle Charter School	2,112	2018	4.66%
School District 27J	The STEAD School	156	-	-
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	The Studio School	273	277	-1.44%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Elementary)	1,099	1011	8.70%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (High)	311	271	14.76%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Middle)	232	230	0.87%
Denver County 1	Thomas Jefferson High School	1,374	1235	11.26%
Charter School Institute	Thomas MacLaren State Charter School	908	867	4.73%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Integrated Early Childhood	68	563	-87.92%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Valley High School	1,060	1089	-2.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Thomson Elementary School	194	272	-28.68%
Brush RE-2(J)	Thomson Primary School	382	386	-1.04%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Elementary School	343	413	-16.95%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton High School	1,485	1608	-7.65%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Middle School	795	994	-20.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Three Creeks K-8	964	912	5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	Thunder Mountain Elementary School	447	516	-13.37%
Cherry Creek 5	Thunder Ridge Middle School	1,116	1254	-11.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Thunder Valley PK-8	825	851	-3.06%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thunder Vista P-8	795	747	6.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Thunderridge High School	1,880	2042	-7.93%
East Otero R-1	Tiger Trades Academy	114	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Timber Trail Elementary School	356	357	-0.28%
Cherry Creek 5	Timberline Elementary School	566	613	-7.67%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Timberline PK-8	831	898	-7.46%
Academy 20	Timberview Middle School	860	1062	-19.02%
Poudre R-1	Timnath Elementary School	417	456	-8.55%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Tollgate Elementary School of Expeditionary Learning	484	506	-4.35%
Mesa County Valley 51	Tope Elementary School	316	337	-6.23%
Windsor RE-4	Tozer Elementary School	512	558	-8.24%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Trail Ridge Middle School	549	680	-19.26%
Colorado Springs 11	Trailblazer Elementary School	249	312	-20.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Trailblazer Elementary School	310	413	-24.94%
Cherry Creek 5	Trails West Elementary School	446	460	-3.04%
Mapleton 1	Trailside Academy	514	478	7.53%
Poudre R-1	Traut Core Elementary School	490	510	-3.92%
Denver County 1	Traylor Academy	377	438	-13.93%
Denver County 1	Trevista at Horace Mann	386	379	1.85%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad High School	215	240	-10.42%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad Middle School	200	220	-9.09%
Thompson R2-J	Truscott Elementary School	224	231	-3.03%
Harrison 2	Turman Elementary School	196	254	-22.83%
School District 27J	Turnberry Elementary	732	711	2.95%
Thompson R2-J	Turner Middle School	476	466	2.15%
Colorado Springs 11	Twain Elementary School	360	406	-11.33%
Littleton 6	Twain Elementary School	226	287	-21.25%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Twin Peaks Charter Academy	830	729	13.85%
Charter School Institute	Two Rivers Community School	392	349	12.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Two Roads Charter School	605	635	-4.72%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Twombly Elementary School	436	417	4.56%
Greeley 6	Union Colony Elementary School	369	-	-
Greeley 6	Union Colony Preparatory School	362	864	-58.10%
Boulder Valley Re 2	University Hill Elementary School	431	464	-7.11%
Denver County 1	University Park Elementary School	388	436	-11.01%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Arapahoe St.	303	330	-8.18%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Steele St.	315	329	-4.26%
Greeley 6	University Schools	1,748	1774	-1.47%
Summit RE-1	Upper Blue Elementary School	224	262	-14.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Ute Meadows Elementary School	389	383	1.57%
Manitou Springs 14	Ute Pass Elementary School	177	159	11.32%
Eagle County RE 50	Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy (VSSA)	228	207	10.14%
Denver County 1	Valdez Elementary School	412	431	-4.41%
Weld County RE-1	Valley High School	568	547	3.84%
Denver County 1	Valverde Elementary School	274	272	0.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Van Arsdale Elementary School	414	451	-8.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Vanderhoof Elementary School	370	414	-10.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - East	773	702	10.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - West	341	422	-19.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Vantage Point	316	383	-17.49%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vassar Elementary School	457	520	-12.12%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vaughn Elementary School	345	360	-4.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vega Collegiate Academy	506	237	113.50%
Widefield 3	Venetucci Elementary School	287	351	-18.23%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy High State Charter School	112	123	-8.94%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy Middle State Charter School	176	204	-13.73%
School District 27J	Vikan Middle School	653	641	1.87%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Elementary School	151	58	160.34%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Undivided High School	71	45	57.78%
Pueblo County 70	Villa Bella Expeditionary School	300	192	56.25%
Littleton 6	Village at Highland	144	-	-
Littleton 6	Village at North	151	397	-61.96%
Cherry Creek 5	Village East Community Elementary School	689	774	-10.98%
Academy 20	Village High School	408	214	90.65%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Elementary School	308	300	2.67%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Middle School	332	359	-7.52%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Virginia Court Elementary School	381	423	-9.93%
Delta County 50(J)	Vision Charter Academy	398	476	-16.39%
Denver County 1	Vista Academy	211	297	-28.96%
Montrose County RE-1J	Vista Charter School	156	209	-25.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory	1,654	1407	17.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak P-8 Exploratory	961	1225	-21.55%
District 49	Vista Ridge High School	1,644	1615	1.80%
Pueblo City 60	W H Heaton Middle School	755	773	-2.33%
Cherry Creek 5	Walnut Hills Community Elementary School	358	404	-11.39%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh Elementary School	104	109	-4.59%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh High School	57	45	26.67%
Thompson R2-J	Walt Clark Middle School	362	472	-23.31%
Garfield Re-2	Wamsley Elementary School	378	371	1.89%
Jefferson County R-1	Warder Elementary School	372	378	-1.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech Central	28	42	-33.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech North	9	5	80.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech South	6	-	-
Canon City RE-1	Washington Elementary School	314	317	-0.95%
Lamar Re-2	Washington Elementary School	262	271	-3.32%
Rocky Ford R-2	Washington Primary School	152	190	-20.00%
Widefield 3	Watson Junior High School	539	560	-3.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Wayne Carle Middle School	528	584	-9.59%
Poudre R-1	Webber Middle School	739	806	-8.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Weber Elementary School	253	324	-21.91%
Widefield 3	Webster Elementary School	492	479	2.71%
Fountain 8	Weikel Elementary School	773	855	-9.59%
Mapleton 1	Welby Community School	323	387	-16.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Welchester Elementary School	262	323	-18.89%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Middle School	533	543	-1.84%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Senior High School	717	702	2.14%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Elementary School	138	133	3.76%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Jr/Sr High School	87	81	7.41%
Poudre R-1	Wellington Middle School	517	553	-6.51%
Fountain 8	Welte Education Center	115	84	36.90%
Poudre R-1	Werner Elementary School	393	484	-18.80%
Colorado Springs 11	West Elementary School	181	231	-21.65%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand Elementary and Middle School	276	296	-6.76%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand High School	117	138	-15.22%
Denver County 1	West High School	705	605	16.53%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Elementary School	261	275	-5.09%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Middle School	496	572	-13.29%
Mesa County Valley 51	West Middle School	341	379	-10.03%
Cherry Creek 5	West Middle School	1,077	1249	-13.77%
Colorado Springs 11	West Middle School	191	270	-29.26%
Denver County 1	West Middle School	314	642	-51.09%
Greeley 6	West Ridge Academy	424	434	-2.30%
School District 27J	West Ridge Elementary	783	747	4.82%
Jefferson County R-1	West Woods Elementary School	540	584	-7.53%
Denver County 1	Westerly Creek Elementary	715	721	-0.83%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westgate Community School	549	523	4.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Westgate Elementary School	365	465	-21.51%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westlake Middle School	967	1101	-12.17%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster Academy for International Studies	304	299	1.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster High School	2,082	2406	-13.47%
Jefferson County R-1	Westridge Elementary School	411	435	-5.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westview Elementary School	427	444	-3.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Westview Middle School	648	713	-9.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Wheat Ridge High School	1,084	1179	-8.06%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Wheeling Elementary School	453	497	-8.85%
Denver County 1	Whittier ECE-8 School	223	247	-9.72%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Whittier Elementary School	325	378	-14.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield District 3 Preschool	438	423	3.55%
Widefield 3	Widefield Elementary School of the Arts	351	423	-17.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield High School	1,160	1260	-7.94%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Elementary School	481	419	14.80%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins High School	218	191	14.14%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Middle School	120	105	14.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Wildcat Mountain Elementary School	462	525	-12.00%
Littleton 6	Wilder Elementary School	631	686	-8.02%
Harrison 2	Wildflower Elementary School	411	458	-10.26%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Elementary School	150	131	14.50%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Junior-Senior High School	112	107	4.67%
Denver County 1	William (Bill) Roberts ECE-8 School	850	932	-8.80%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	William Smith High School	375	372	0.81%
Cherry Creek 5	Willow Creek Elementary School	509	556	-8.45%
Denver County 1	Willow Elementary School	614	628	-2.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmore Davis Elementary School	243	259	-6.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmot Elementary School	289	352	-17.90%
Colorado Springs 11	Wilson Elementary School	346	385	-10.13%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Early College High School	359	302	18.87%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Elementary School	778	685	13.58%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Middle School	365	351	3.99%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor High School	1,172	1377	-14.89%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Middle School	812	733	10.78%
Mesa County Valley 51	Wingate Elementary School	405	452	-10.40%
Greeley 6	Winograd K-8 Elementary School	612	670	-8.66%
Thompson R2-J	Winona Elementary School	262	327	-19.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Witt Elementary School	257	297	-13.47%
Englewood 1	Wm E Bishop Elementary School	203	205	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Woodglen Elementary School	424	482	-12.03%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park High School	601	699	-14.02%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park Middle School	406	529	-23.25%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Elementary School	30	44	-31.82%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
District 49	Woodmen Hills Elementary School	611	615	-0.65%
Academy 20	Woodmen-Roberts Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Jefferson County R-1	Woodrow Wilson Charter Academy	771	931	-17.19%
Eagle County RE 50	World Academy	56	32	75.00%
Douglas County Re 1	World Compass Academy	679	619	9.69%
Wray RD-2	Wray Elementary School	425	335	26.87%
Wray RD-2	Wray Junior Senior High School	324	199	62.81%
Denver County 1	Wyatt Academy	179	178	0.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Yale Elementary School	482	469	2.77%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Yampa Valley High School	26	27	-3.70%
Colorado River BOCES	Yampah Mountain School	169	168	0.60%
Mapleton 1	York International	851	793	7.31%
Yuma 1	Yuma High School	252	251	0.40%
Yuma 1	Yuma Middle School	256	268	-4.48%
Poudre R-1	Zach Elementary School	493	562	-12.28%

Colorado’s pre-K to 12th grade enrollment

Cam Rodriguez

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer contributed to this report.

Jeffco paid for a report on school closure, then shelved it. Four years later, the district faces the same challenges.

2021-08-04T17:24:05+00:00

When Jeffco leaders saved four out of five schools from closure in 2017, they knew they were just kicking the problem down the road. They said so at the time.

They even paid an education consulting firm $170,000 to look at how other districts handle school closures and make recommendations, but the report was shelved and never acted on. It wasn’t presented to the school board or the community, and no policies changed.

Instead, administrators worked on other priorities, even as enrollment continued to drop.

This spring, Jeffco Public Schools closed another small school, Allendale Elementary, with little warning for parents and no board vote. At one meeting, parents and teachers who wanted to talk about their school were turned away.

Another 28 Jeffco schools have enrollment below 200 students, a level that threatens their financial viability, and district leaders again are launching a conversation about what to do.

It’s unclear if the previous work will be used or need to be updated.

Steve Bell, Jeffco’s chief operating officer, points out that the district has different board members, a new superintendent, and even new administrators who all need to discuss the issue.

“It’s incumbent upon us to draft and implement a certain set of criteria so we can address those things,” Bell said. “So that there is a very clear awareness both internally and externally in the district about how we do this.”

Since the 2017 proposal to close five Jeffco schools, several things interrupted the work of planning for school closure, Bell said.

When Bell and his team first hired MGT Consulting to do the outside review, they thought more school closures were imminent. But just months later, new Superintendent Jason Glass issued a two-year moratorium on any school closures.

Bell said the district decided MGT’s findings would still be relevant long-term and continued the project.

Then in 2018, Jeffco voters approved local tax increases to fund a slew of capital improvements. That again put school closures farther away.

When MGT presented its recommendations to Jeffco’s leadership team in 2019, Bell said that the district was occupied with bond projects and other work and didn’t immediately pick up on the difficult task of creating a long-term plan for school closures.

And the moratorium was still in place.

In August 2020, Superintendent Jason Glass left the district to serve as Kentucky’s education commissioner. He could not be reached for comment.

Mike Raisor, senior vice president of the education solutions group for MGT, said he reached out to the district months later and even had a meeting scheduled in March of 2020. It was canceled as the pandemic shut down schools and pushed districts into emergency response mode across the country

“We did an extensive, extensive amount of work,” Raisor said. That included reviewing similar-sized districts across the country and researching their policies, practices, and procedures around school closures. Consultants also interviewed administrators from some of those districts.

Chalkbeat submitted a public records request for MGT’s report and received only a 17-page document labeled as a draft.

The report, dated January 2019, laid out recommendations for monitoring school capacity on an annual basis, creating clear thresholds that would trigger decisions, and developing timelines that would allow for community feedback.

MGT compared Jeffco to 13 other districts across the country, including some that had more or fewer students, but none had more schools than Jeffco.

Although the report is labeled a draft, MGT officials say the report was final and just waiting on district input to be formally reprinted as a final report.

MGT officials say they also submitted an 800-page appendix with more details about research, other district’s practices, and an analysis of Jeffco’s school enrollment and building conditions. Chalkbeat requested the appendix but has not yet received it. Bell said he just learned about the existence of that appendix this week after Chalkbeat asked about it.

After learning about the MGT report, Amanda Duran, an Arvada mom of two Jeffco students who has been concerned about the district’s approach to school closures, said she was disappointed the review didn’t include parent input.

“These decisions are affecting so many families,” Duran said. “They should definitely start including us as parents that do have kids in Jeffco. Community involvement is huge. That should be one of the main priorities.”

Some of the first contract documents with MGT mention a possibility of doing community outreach as part of the review and recommendations, but that didn’t happen.

Raisor said that he wasn’t with MGT during the entire Jeffco project and doesn’t know some of the details. The people who led the project are no longer with MGT.

Joel Newton, for his part, isn’t waiting for the district.

Newton, who runs the nonprofit Edgewater Collective, said families he works with are afraid of school closure. While he thinks it’s important to have a clear understanding of how the district decides which schools to close, he also wishes the district would come up with a plan to help make schools more attractive to parents, before they are facing dire enrollment problems.

Newton is starting to do focus groups this summer to talk to families who leave their neighborhood or their district to find out what they look for in schools.

“We’re not waiting on the district, we’re taking it on to ask families, ‘what goes into your choice?’” Newton said. “For the stroller families, ‘what type of programs do you want to see when your kids become school age?’ You have to start there. That’s a more preventative measure.”

Bell said that Jeffco never stopped talking about school needs and facilities. The pyramid, or decision tree, that guides school closure decisions encompasses several factors, including building capacity, educational offerings, and “inherent community benefits,” such as a school being high-performing.

Bell acknowledged that process isn’t well known to the community, and the conversations now might need to be broader. He and board members have raised other issues. Should the district encourage more school choice? Should schools still be funded based on student counts? Does closing schools hurt disadvantaged students the most? Are district policies making schools more segregated?

“We need additional conversations,” Bell said.

Newton has seen the district discuss changes before. He participated in a committee the district convened in 2014 to look at choice and where programs across the district were located.

“But the district’s never taken that next step to say how do we do this well,” Newton said. “By sitting on it, COVID and the pandemic has ramped up demographic changes and the enrollment drop, and they missed doing something.”

“It’s really hard work,” he said. “But it’s hard work that’s important in terms of equity and funding for schools.”

Update: Jeffco Public Schools made the appendix available after this story published.

Few students, big concerns: Jeffco parents worry about small schools’ future

2021-05-28T21:36:00+00:00

Following the surprise closure of a small school in Jeffco this spring, families throughout the district are worried about the future of their own schools.

The common question is: How will Jeffco decide if it needs to close another school?

Jeffco has dozens of small schools, including 28 with fewer than 200 students, and the closure of Allendale Elementary with little public discussion or warning has rattled parents. While enrollment has shrunk steadily for several years, Jeffco has not created a long-term plan to address declining student numbers and the resulting shrinking budget.

“I don’t know what they’re looking at when it comes to making these decisions,” said Amanda Duran, the mother of a third grader at Swanson Elementary, one of the smaller schools in Jeffco and one that’s been on the chopping block before. “It’s scary to think about. Nobody wants their kids going from school to school to school.”

Enrollment in Jeffco schools, as in many other Colorado districts, has been declining for years. According to a Chalkbeat analysis, since 2016, the number of schools in Jeffco with 300 students or fewer shot up from 40 to 65 this year. That includes 28 schools with fewer than 200 students, up from 19 schools in that situation in the 2016-17 school year. The pandemic only accelerated the enrollment decline years in the making.

The district funds schools per student. So as enrollment shrinks, so does a school’s budget. While the school might hire fewer teachers, other costs — such a counselor or a principal — remain fixed, and when money gets tight the school has fewer resources and programs for students.

Still, some parents value small schools, where they believe their children get more attention and are known by all the adults. They hope the district sees that value, too.

Several other metro area districts are also dealing with declining enrollment. The 27J district in Brighton decided this year to repurpose one school after enrollment dipped below 200 students. Aurora decided this year to close two schools, and more closures may still come. Along with the closures, the district is creating magnet schools and specializations by region. Denver is planning to engage the community about how to deal with its declining enrollment.

Census data shows that although the population of Jeffco has increased in the past decade, the number of children has decreased. Once the largest district in the state, Jeffco has fallen to the second largest, behind Denver.

Parents worry that Jeffco failed to act before a crisis hit Allendale, the school Jeffco decided to close this year. District officials said they learned in February that because of families continuing to choose online learning, the school would have fewer than 100 students by next fall. Allendale had dipped below 200 students in 2018. Yet the district didn’t plan to help the school or prepare parents for possible closure sooner.

The district informed parents and staff it was considering closing the school at the end of March, and finalized the decision in mid-April, about a month before the end of the school year. Families scrambled to find other schools for the fall.

“They’ve known it’s a declining enrollment school for years,” said Jess Whetzel, a mother of two Jeffco children, including one at Allendale. “I have lost trust that the district will create a plan that will help those low enrollment schools or that even addresses it.”

Whetzel said that if the district knew more than half of the children in the attendance boundary for Allendale were choosing to go to other schools, it should have surveyed families to find out why.

“People aren’t necessarily just wanting traditional schools anymore,” Whetzel said. “That’s why charter schools fill up.”

One board member, Stephanie Schooley, said the board is planning to discuss long-term issues, including what to do with small schools, at a meeting in August. District officials said in an email that they agree with the need to study enrollment declines and want to have a better process and clearer criteria for closure decisions. They did not grant an interview request.

Schooley’s own children attended Stober Elementary, a school that was considered for closure in the past, and she represents an area of Jeffco close to Denver that has seen the most drastic enrollment declines.

Those drastic declines are happening in areas like Arvada where new development is contributing to rising housing prices that have pushed some families out. But other common factors like an aging population and declining birth rates also contribute to the enrollment trends.

Schooley said she’s fielded many questions and concerns about potential school closures.

“It’s an issue that has to be addressed,” Schooley said. “It’s not going to go away.”

Jeffco has faced these questions before. In 2017, the then-superintendent proposed closing five elementary schools. After considerable pushback, the board voted on a new plan to close only one school and spared the others while a better plan to identify schools to close could be hatched.

Shortly after, a new superintendent, Jason Glass, issued a moratorium on school closures to allow time for drafting and reviewing policies and procedures. But no new process or policies materialized.

The district has morphed a handful of schools into new programs in hopes of attracting new students, without much success.

Pennington, an elementary school spared closure in 2017, was converted to an expeditionary learning program. Data shows that the school’s enrollment decline slowed but did not stop. The school serves about 188 students this year.

At another school, Foster elementary, the community pushed the district to create a K-8 dual language program. That rollout was just completed, but the school’s enrollment has continued to decline.

Thomas Toch, the director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University, said that districts like Jeffco, that have a common enrollment system that allows families to easily choose a school outside their neighborhood, should track trends of what parents are looking for in schools.

“They should be planning how to respond to parental preferences in a way that ensures, among other things, that there are programs that parents want within a reasonable distance of where they live,” Toch said.

“There’s not really any excuse,” for closing a school with such short notice, Toch said. “They’ve seen enrollment declines for several years. It’s easy to spot these trends when you’ve got a common enrollment system.”

At the end of the day, schools with fewer than 200 students are inefficient. A district can revise program offerings according to parent demand, but also must consider a declining population, he said.

School board member Schooley believes the district’s plan for small schools must include listening to and engaging with the community, something many argue didn’t happen in the quick closure of Allendale this year. Also, school officials must review policies that might be disproportionately burdening lower-income neighborhoods that are losing more students.

She believes Jeffco should reconsider student-based budgeting, she said.

As far as whether the situation at Allendale might be repeated, Schooley tells parents she doesn’t expect it to. At Allendale, the district said the principal’s departure and the sudden realization that fewer than 100 students would be in the building next fall contributed to the quick decision. The district was also under management by an interim superintendent, during a pandemic.

“There is in no way an interest in having emergency closures of schools ever again,” Schooley said. “I know it’s disruptive and fraught with a whole lot of emotion that’s real. I don’t have any joy in being part of that.”

Parent Debbie Hansen moved her three children from Peck Elementary in Arvada, one of the other Jeffco small schools spared from closure in 2017, to Mountain Phoenix, a Jeffco charter school using the alternative Waldorf model of learning that tends to be more hands-on and focuses on children’s developmental stages.

Hansen still cares about Peck, and hopes the district won’t look at closing it again, but said families have left for many reasons. In her case, she was uncomfortable with the school’s new principal, who came from a high school, and she wanted a different model of learning for her children.

“I felt like they needed a different teaching style and smaller classroom sizes,” Hansen said.

Mountain Phoenix is among Jeffco schools whose enrollment has grown over the past five years. About a third of those growing schools are charters.

Hansen said that after a year of remote learning, school districts might find parents are more willing to approve tax increases.

“I understand the money concerns, I 100% do, but at some point we got to stop thinking about the money part of it and think about the kids,” Hansen said. “Test scores would be better for all the students if they had smaller classroom sizes. And parents might decide whatever the schools need for taxes, they’ll get.”

Many of the parents of small schools say the district should value them more.

Duran, the mother of a student at Swanson, thinks its small school environment may have helped her son. After struggling with reading, he now has higher scores and is reading at grade level.

That came after a lot of one-on-one support.

“It’s a good thing to have those numbers up, but then would my son suffer if he doesn’t have that one-on-one throughout the year?” Duran asked.

Her son also has epilepsy, and Duran has peace of mind knowing that all of the teachers know him and his situation, and could respond if he ever had a seizure at school.

“It’s kind of made me feel good,” Duran said.

Giving families little notice, Jeffco lays out plan to close small elementary school

2021-04-15T00:42:54+00:00

The Jeffco school district is planning to close Allendale, a small elementary school in Arvada, at the end of this school year.

It’s a decision, district leaders acknowledged, that comes at a bad time and with short notice.

But leaders said they rushed to consider closing the school only in the last few months when it became clear that existing challenges sustaining the small school were compounding.

In February, the district realized that Allendale may have fewer than than 100 students next year after some families said in a survey that they intend to continue remote learning in the fall. Then, the school’s principal announced he would be leaving for a new job.

Parents of the school pleaded with the school board at a meeting Wednesday to reconsider, noting that they were only informed at the end of March, giving them little notice.

The district’s first round of placements for students choosing a new school has already ended. although district staff are now planning to work individually with each Allendale family to find placements for students.

“As a Native American family, I feel like we found a home here at Allendale,” said parent Elizabeth Molica. “I would just hate to see that taken away from our family.”

Other parents talked about the value of having every employee of the school know their children by name, and the fear that enrollment decline is a regional problem that could require other school closures next.

Only one school staff member spoke Wednesday, asking for Allendale to remain open at least one more year. She criticized the district for scheduling the discussion during a work day, making it impossible for other school staff to attend.

Four of the five board members supported the district’s decision, though it was not put to a board vote. Although Jeffco school board members have voted on past school closures, a district spokesperson said it was not required. Susan Miller was the one board member who raised objections.

Allendale serves about 117 students this year, of which approximately 60% come from low-income families, compared with a district average of 30%. About 10% of the students are English language learners.

Some speakers accused the district of taking such a rushed approach with the decision only because of the demographics of the parents and students served — suggesting that such a decision would not be tolerated at some of the other schools in the district.

“Frankly, it would not have happened in a school populated from affluent families,” said Lisa Elliott, one of the staff members for the Jeffco teachers union, who spoke on behalf of school staff that couldn’t attend.

“It does not speak well of valuing people and having integrity. I know sometimes schools have to be closed. I know it is a tough decision. It is never welcome, but that doesn’t excuse the disrespectful way this was handled, the poor timing, and the inability of people to have their voices heard.”

District leaders told the board they considered equity when making their decision. Because schools are funded based on how many students they have, small schools like Allendale can’t offer as much programming or help for struggling students as larger schools. And since programming would be further cut at Allendale next year, it would create an inequitable situation.

“Too often schools in poverty … are left to atrophy,” said Community Superintendent Lee Cooper. “The population declines. The support declines, and year after year we tell families that this is OK and that your child can receive equitable access and equitable support in this building when they can’t. Not when we have 100 kids. I couldn’t look a parent straight in the eye and say your child will get the same support and resources in this building as they could at any one of my other schools.”

District staff did not make clear when the decision to close the school would be finalized, but interim superintendent Kristopher Schuh, in one of his last actions leading the district before new superintendent Tracy Dorland takes over next week, said “this is where we plan on moving forward at this point in time.”

District leaders told the board that Allendale has had a 45% drop in enrollment over the past five years. Of the number of students who live within the school’s attendance boundaries, more than 60% choose to attend a different district school.

Cooper said that among the set of schools he monitors, no other “has more kids choosing out than we have attending the school.”

The small number of students enrolled also presents a challenge because they are not evenly divided among grade levels.

For first and second grade, the school has one teacher who physically switches between two sides of a classroom, balancing two sets of standards, curriculum, and data, district staff said.

There is one third grade teacher and one for a combined fourth and fifth grade classroom. That means teachers have fewer opportunities to collaborate because they don’t have peers who teach the same grade level. The staffing challenges also have meant that the principal fills in to teach math courses every day.

Brenda Von Kaenel, the school’s digital librarian, said that staff learned about the plans three weeks ago, just before the district went on spring break.

When the meeting for staff was called, just shortly after the principal announced that he was leaving, staff expected to hear about a plan to select a replacement leader, she said. Instead, staff were “shocked and devastated” to hear talks about closure.

“Staff didn’t see this coming,” Von Kaenel said. “I had just been working with designers and carpenters to remodel the library. New furniture was arriving the next day for all our classrooms.”

She added, “You steamrolled over us.”

One district policy outlines a six-month process for “any potential school closure,” requiring specific input from groups, and a report analyzing 10 different factors, including projected enrollment.

Asked about that policy by board member Miller and community members, Cooper said the district didn’t violate it because it only pertains to facility planning, not to educational programming within a school building.

“There’s still time to have that conversation,” Cooper said, referring to when the district later decides what should be done with the empty school building.

Not counting fifth graders who would be moving on to middle schools next year, the district will help place 78 students into other schools. Transportation to other schools will be offered to alleviate some parents’ concern about having children cross busy 64th Avenue to get to other nearby elementary schools.

Board President Susan Harmon said that even though staff members weren’t able to speak to the board Wednesday, she believed their voices were heard in other ways.

Speaking to the impacted staff and families, she closed the discussion by saying, “our hearts go out to you.”

Aurora postpones facility decisions as pandemic creates uncertainty in enrollment trends

2020-05-14T23:53:30+00:00

The current pandemic has delayed Aurora’s plan for moving, merging, opening, and closing schools to accommodate shifting enrollment.

Officials who have been mapping out options with community groups had expected to present a plan to the school board this spring. But now they don’t know how the growing economic recession will change the population of Aurora and enrollment in district schools.

The plan known as Blueprint APS had been in the works for more than two years and was intended to help make decisions about schools that should merge, schools that might be put to a different use, and new schools that could locate in the part of the district that is expanding.

Aurora has been experiencing uneven shifts, with low-income families leaving the western part of the city bordering Denver, and growth in the east, where new homes have been built.

But the coronavirus has made planning difficult for all Colorado school districts.

Josh Hensley, Aurora’s planning coordinator, said it’s too early to know whether enrollment in Aurora Public Schools will continue to decline, or if development projects planned in the east will still move forward.

Evidence points in opposite directions, he told the school board this week.

Developers have told school leaders they remain optimistic. City officials said no projects have been suspended yet.

Some school leaders said they’ve heard anecdotally that families are leaving the district. Much of Aurora’s population is employed in some of the hardest-hit job sectors, Hensley said.

“Most of the growth that has occurred, to the extent that we’ve had new population and enrollment growth in the metro area, has been from families moving in to take advantage of the strong Colorado and Denver job market,” Hensley said. “If there’s no longer that draw in the future, that could potentially impact the number of students we will serve.”

But Hensley also pointed out that Aurora once attracted families seeking affordable alternatives to Denver and other communities. That could be the case again, he said.

Changes in either direction could affect the district’s building recommendations. Other factors that could play a role are budget considerations and health guidelines for reopening schools.

The district had already discussed how expensive it can be to run small schools as enrollment declines. Now school districts are facing huge, previously unexpected budget cuts, and some are already looking at selling unused buildings.

Health guidelines, specifically those limiting how many people may be in a room at the same time, are affecting how districts plan to reopen schools. As other district leaders have noted, districts may need all the building space they can get to be able to spread out students when they return to buildings. Aurora has not released details of its fall plans, but is working with the other metro area districts.

So far, Aurora leaders are proposing three plans depending on how many students enroll this fall.

Generally, the district would craft recommendations from August to December, but if enrollment is significantly lower than expected, the district would have to convert more schools or parts of schools than expected for non-classroom use.

In that scenario, the district may also speed up those changes, potentially closing and merging schools by fall of the 2021-22 school year. The district may also start the process to identify more school buildings, in areas not yet under consideration, that need to be repurposed.

The district also might speed up or slow down plans for building a new school and for identifying a location for it, depending on enrollment changes.

In Aurora district, smaller schools and half-empty buildings have costs rising

2019-03-21T00:20:05+00:00

Just two years ago, Aurora schools faced overcrowding, with almost all of them more than 90 percent full. Now the district is facing a different problem, with projections showing that only one of the 27 district elementary schools will be close to capacity next year.

The changes happened so fast that Brett Johnson, Aurora Public Schools’ chief financial officer, acknowledged that “we haven’t had time to discuss what do with all this underutilized space.”

There are several factors driving the decline: gentrification and higher costs of living, causing families to relocate, and a growing number of students enrolling in charter schools, which in Aurora usually find and pay for their own facilities. This school year, the district has 31,263 students, in grades kindergarten through 12th grade, down from 34,037 two years ago.

Falling enrollment is costing the district about $21 million this year, Johnson said, and if the trend continues, the cost will go up by $3.1 million with each passing year.

“Everything has a cost,” Johnson said.

As the Aurora school board considers a new plan for the future of the district’s programs and facilities, it may soon consider shuttering schools. At this point, no schools have been identified for possible closure.

Superintendent Rico Munn told the board that current district policy directs staff to evaluate the best use for school buildings as “neighborhood schools operating at full capacity.” That means there’s no room currently to suggest using a school building for other purposes.

“That’s what we’re directed to use the buildings for,” Munn said. “Of course we know that our schools can end up serving lots of different purposes in our communities and lots of different things which we want to acknowledge and we are not ignoring that.”

But he said there are “very practical and logistic things” that district leaders must consider, given the rising costs of keeping schools open while operating well below capacity.

The problem, as Johnson put it, is two-fold. A big building that is only used by about half the students it’s designed to accommodate costs more per student because costs for maintaining a building, paying a principal, or keeping the electricity running, don’t decrease with fewer students.

If a roof needs to be replaced, “you don’t build half of a roof,” Johnson said.

The second part of the costs are related to the number of students in schools. Schools with few students always cost more per student since the state provides money to districts, and districts to schools, based on how many students are enrolled. Fewer students means less money.

Johnson’s analysis presented to the board estimated that an elementary school of about 225 students costs about $8,300 per student to run — about $2,000 more per student than a school of about 500 students.

A school could have both problems, or only one. A school that has 300 students could be 100 percent full in its building, meaning it may still be efficient to operate when compared to a school serving 500 students, but in a building designed for 1,000.

While all but one of the 27 district-run elementary schools in Aurora are expected to lose several students next school year, a district analysis found 10 will cost more per student, taking into account both having fewer students and also being under capacity.

Chalkbeat looked at the district’s enrollment projections and found, for example, that Aurora Century Elementary is expected to have only about 207 students next year, which would put the school at 42 percent of its capacity. Dartmouth and Park Lane elementary schools are in similar situations both hovering around 50 percent full, and each expected to have fewer than 300 students next year.

Dartmouth is less than two miles away from Aurora Century. Park Lane is in northwest Aurora where most new charter schools are opening and where enrollment declines have been some of the steepest.

School board member Dan Jorgensen, asked the district to consider whether, in some cases, the value of a school for a community might be worth the district’s extra costs.

Education research has shown that schools with more students of color are more likely to be shut down. Research on the impact of such closures shows that students can benefit if there are better schools for them to attend. But when there’s a constant churn of students switching to similarly performing schools, students can end up worse off academically.

Board president Marques Ivey was concerned about whether or not communities around the district are aware of the possibility of school closures.

Superintendent Munn pointed out that as part of the district’s “Blueprint” work, a process to create a plan for how schools should function in the future, which has included surveys and community meetings, has included discussions about possible closing schools. Earlier this year, the school board was presented with several scenarios of possible models for moving forward, and all included closing or repurposing schools. Board members have expressed some hesitation about selecting a one-size-fits-all approach districtwide. A decision could be made next month.

While waiting for the board’s long-term guidance, Johnson said that district officials are looking for shorter-term ways to cut costs as they build next school year’s budget.

Tight-knit and tightly budgeted: Inside one of Denver’s smallest schools

2018-01-25T22:20:39+00:00

When he walks down the hallway at Fairview Elementary, fifth-grader Jeremiah Martinez said he knows “mostly everybody,” including the teachers.

“The more I know them, the easier it is to do everything,” he said. “It’s better because you’re not going to be as shy, and you’re not going to be mumbling or acting different.

“You’re going to act like you regularly are.”

With about 220 students, Fairview is one of the smallest public schools in Denver. That’s one of the things that makes it special, according to the people who spend their days there. But having so few students also comes with big financial challenges.

Because Denver schools are funded per-pupil, fewer students means less money to pay for staff and supplies. That forces school leaders to make tough decisions and the school district to step in to provide extra cash. This year, Denver Public Schools spent $2.1 million to shore up the budgets of small schools.

The district could soon find itself having to pay even more. Demographers are predicting that declining birth rates and rising housing prices will cause enrollment in the 92,600-student district to drop nearly 2 percent by 2021.

A committee of community leaders tasked with suggesting ways to address falling enrollment recently recommended the district create “a transparent school consolidation process that allows impacted communities to reimagine their schools.”

The district has not yet done so, or said which schools might be subject to consolidation. But the committee noted that schools with 300 students or fewer “face particular challenges.”

“When they get under 300, schools have to think about trade-offs,” said Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova, who herself was once the principal of a small school.

Thirteen elementary schools, three K-8 schools, two middle schools, and two high schools meet that bar this year (not counting alternative schools, or schools in the process of phasing in or out), according to Denver enrollment numbers on file with the state education department.

Eight district-run schools were predicted to have fewer than 215 students, and the district spent just over $1 million to bring their funding up to the same level as schools with 215 students. It does that to ensure schools can afford to have one teacher per grade, one principal, one secretary, and the minimum amount of supplies and student mental health support, Cordova said.

Extra fundingThese schools were projected to have fewer than 215 students, so they received funding to bring them up to the 215-student level.

McKinley-Thatcher Elementary: $285,000
Kepner Middle School: $200,000
Math and Science Leadership Academy: $180,000
Stedman Elementary: $150,000
Henry World School: $145,000
Hallett Academy: $30,000
Columbine Elementary: $20,000
Palmer Elementary: $5,000

These schools were projected to have more than 215 students but fewer than 300. They applied for discretionary “budget assistance” funds and were granted them.

Morey Middle School: $325,000
Fairview Elementary: $155,000
Columbian Elementary: $140,000
Greenlee Elementary: $90,000
Beach Court Elementary: $70,000
Colfax Elementary: $70,000
Stedman Elementary: $70,000
Whittier K-8 School: $70,000
Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy High School: $70,000
Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design: $35,000

Note: Stedman Elementary got both types of funding

Source: Denver Public Schools

The district spent about another $1 million on nine other district-run schools that have more than 215 students but fewer than 300. Schools must request that funding, known as “budget assistance,” which is doled out based on factors like school size and performance.

Cordova said district officials feel obligated to make sure small schools have enough funding to offer quality programs. At the same time, there are a lot of competing needs, and money spent supporting small schools isn’t available for other programs.

Fairview got $155,000 in budget assistance this year. Although the experience of each small school is different, the challenges faced by Fairview are illustrative.

The school sits in the middle of Sun Valley, the city’s poorest neighborhood. Isolated from the rest of Denver by roadways and rivers, Sun Valley is populated by industry, the Denver Broncos stadium, and more than 400 government-subsidized apartments.

This year, 226 students in preschool through fifth grade attend school in the stately blond-brick building, recently painted by muralists as part of a project to bring beauty to poor neighborhoods. Many live in the public housing across the street, and 99 percent of students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Most are black and Hispanic, and many come from immigrant families.

Enrollment is down from five years ago, when Fairview had 281 students. As the school has lost per-pupil funding, Principal Antoinette Hudson has prioritized protecting teaching jobs to keep class sizes small. The school has avoided deep staffing cuts because she was able to sock away some of the extra funding Fairview received when it was one of the lowest-rated schools in the city.

But her savings can’t completely insulate Fairview from the effects of low enrollment. This year, it has just one third grade class instead of two. District enrollment officials predicted there wouldn’t be enough students for two classes, so Hudson made the difficult decision to consolidate. In a small school, a handful of students can make a big difference.

That difference was obvious on a recent school tour. With fewer than 20 students, most classrooms were hushed. But third grade was noisy. That class has 28 students, and some of them were sprawled on the floor with tablets, others sat at desks cutting out vocabulary words with round-tip scissors, and a group of five huddled at a crescent-shaped table reading a book with teacher Kaitlyn Edstrom.

After listening to each of them read a page, Edstrom did a lap around the room, multitasking as she walked. In less than a minute, she helped a student define a word, sharpened a pencil for another, and reminded the whole class how much time they had before the next activity.

Because Edstrom is the only third-grade teacher, she must teach all subjects to her students. That’s different than in most grades at Fairview, where, for instance, one second-grade teacher specializes in math, the other specializes in reading, and they switch between classrooms. The practice is called “platooning,” and Hudson introduced it shortly after she became principal in 2013 to allow teachers to deepen their knowledge of the content they teach.

But Edstrom said the hardest thing about having the largest class in the school is that she doesn’t get to spend as much quality time working one-on-one with students who are struggling.

That time is critical in a high-poverty school, teachers said: Small class sizes allow them to ask questions and build relationships with students living in challenging conditions.

“Kids just want to feel cared about,” said special education teacher Ashley Juhala. “If you’ll listen to something as mundane as, ‘My cousins came over,’ and you care about that and you want to know, that takes those power struggles, those defensive walls, they come down. Because you’re a person to them now; you’re not an authority figure. You’re family.”

Students said the teachers at Fairview make them feel safe.

“If you tell them something that’s not good that’s happening, then you can trust that they’ll help you with it,” said third-grader Peter Deferse.

The school’s nurturing culture is part of what has helped boost student test scores over the past couple years, teachers said. That academic progress has vaulted Fairview from the district’s lowest color-coded school rating, “red,” to its second highest, “green.”

But such dramatic improvement also has a cost. Because the school is high-performing, it is being weaned off the extra funding the district provides low performers to help them improve. This is the same funding that helped Hudson keep a larger teaching staff. Fairview has already lost a district-funded community engagement specialist, and it’s set to lose two grant-funded administrators: a dean of instruction and a dean of culture and equity.

And more change is coming. The low-income public housing where many students live, Sun Valley Homes, is being redeveloped into mixed-income housing, complete with parks and retail space. Although the new development will have more units than the current one, and though the families living there will be given the option to stay, Hudson and her staff expect some will be displaced. They fear the school’s enrollment could take a hit.

With declines forecast nearly citywide, other elementary schools could be in a similar situation, though for different reasons. Deputy Superintendent Cordova said she suspects some schools that now have three classes per grade will shrink to having two, which can still be financially viable.

“When we see schools going from two to one, that’s where we want to be thoughtful,” she said.

Schools tend to cross that threshold when they dip below 200 students, she said. Fairview is close to the edge. Teachers said they wouldn’t want to see it consolidated with another school, especially since students feel cared for and are showing academic growth.

Hudson said she wouldn’t, either. But the financially savvy principal understands why it would make sense to merge small schools.

She just hopes Fairview isn’t one of them.