Johnson, Linton elementaries 'blindsided' by PSD's revised closure, consolidation plans

Shock quickly turned to anger for the communities of two Fort Collins elementary schools that unexpectedly found themselves on the latest list of possible closures in the Poudre School District.

Parents of students at Johnson Elementary in southwest Fort Collins and Linton Elementary in east Fort Collins said they were “blindsided” when they learned their schools might close before the start of the 2025-26 school year.

Johnson Elementary was listed for closure on all four of the revised scenarios put out by a Facilities Planning Steering Committee that has been tasked with recommending school closures, consolidations and boundary changes to address declining enrollment and the associated reductions in per-student funding from the state.

More: New scenarios call for the closure of 5 PSD schools

Linton Elementary was slated for closure under three of the four revised scenarios and would be converted to a 100% choice-only, dual-language school under the fourth, absorbing Harris Elementary, which would then be closed.

Neither Johnson nor Linton had been mentioned for possible closure under any of the four “draft scenarios” that were publicly released March 19 and publicly vetted since then through eight public listening sessions and an online survey.

“It appears to be the squeaky wheel gets the grease here,” parent Jessica Jackson said Friday outside Johnson as she and about eight other parents were struggling to digest the news as they waited to pick their children up from school. “It feels very inequitable and a major sign of privilege that if you yell loud enough, that your school ends up being 'saved' from the chopping block, and I think that’s pretty problematic.

“We’ve been filling out the surveys, we’ve been going to the listening sessions. We haven’t been not aware, but we weren’t in a position to be waving Johnson flags because we didn’t want to contribute to the ‘Hunger Games’ divisiveness that was going on.”

Her thoughts were echoed by other parents there, on social media posts throughout the weekend and Monday morning by parents taking their children to Linton Elementary.

“We had these original scenarios and those school families that were in fear of getting closed made a ruckus and then essentially got their way,” Linton parent Ty Goodwin said.

Dunn, Lopez and Olander elementaries had all been mentioned as schools that could be closed under the previous scenarios but were left off the latest list of options.

Goodwin, Kamran Parajon and other parents at Johnson and Linton said they don’t blame those communities for defending their schools. They just want to have the same opportunity and fear they won’t have time to do so, with final recommendations scheduled to be presented to the Board of Education on May 28 and voted on June 11.

Parents of both schools, as well as others slated for possible closure or consolidation, are planning to rally outside the Board of Education’s 5:30 p.m. dinner session and 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday night at the Poudre School District’s administration building at 2407 Laporte Ave.

“I feel like we’re going to get the short end of the stick, because they’re just going to be tired of it — everybody, the school board and the steering committee — they’re just going to be tired of it," Goodwin said. "Other schools that were in the first round, they were able to fight first, and now we’re last, and they’re just going to do whatever they were going to do anyway."

All four of the revised scenarios also call for the closing of Beattie Elementary and Blevins Middle School, two schools that had also been mentioned for possible closure on the earlier draft scenarios. Other schools mentioned for possible closure on one or more of the revised scenarios are Cache La Poudre and Putnam elementaries and Boltz, Cache La Poudre and Preston middle schools. Each of those schools also had been listed for possible closure in one or more of the earlier scenarios.

Each of those communities continues to fight to keep their schools open, too. They’ve just had more time to do so.

“What happened to Johnson to go from no consideration to now being in every single one, it’s going to close,” Parajon said. “It’s just absolute madness.”

The district claims its rationale behind the recommended closings of Johnson and Linton was based almost entirely on low-enrollment numbers relative to the size building the schools are in and their proximity to other elementary schools.

Johnson has 334 students this year, 115 fewer than it had five years ago, according to Colorado Department of Education enrollment data, and well below the 500 students the building could accommodate, according to building capacity figures shared by PSD on its long-range planning website.

Linton has 307 students this year, 134 fewer than it had six years ago, and well below its capacity of 492.

Johnson has the second-lowest enrollment, behind Beattie, of the four elementary schools in southwest Fort Collins, according to the rationale released Saturday, and Linton is the “only school in the East to be considered for closure based on low building utilization and geographic proximity to other schools to absorb students.”

What about the other guiding principles the Board of Education created for the steering committee to utilize in this process, parents were asking. What about the concerns of equity that were raised repeatedly in the process of gathering public feedback? Or programming? Or several other criteria on a rubric the committee was supposedly using to incorporate those guiding principles?

“Basically, if you look at their justifications they sent out over the weekend, it was all just numbers,” Linton parent Jon Danielson said. “It was all this had less percentage use; it gets closed. They just threw their rubric out the window, and it seems like it’s all just lip service, this whole equity thing seems like lip service; that’s what’s infuriating.”

He and other parents at Linton on Monday morning were particularly concerned about the impact closing that school would have on its large population of students from families who speak Spanish as their native language, many of them living in the Harmony Village mobile home community just south of the school.

“Numbers in a systemically racist culture can be biased, and I feel like that’s what’s happening here,” parent Molly McLaren said. “If our enrollment is lower, there’s very real reasons for that rooted in systemic racism and xenophobia and classism and all the isms that happen in this neighborhood."

“I’ve talked to parents myself and have heard from them firsthand why they’re choicing their kids out; they’re scared," McLaren said. "The test scores are a little low. They’re scared of what diversity might mean, and it’s a shame.

“I’m not blaming any of them. I get these fears are rampant in our society, and it’s a huge part of why our enrollment numbers are low. And then to close the school, punish the school and these kids that need it because of that is just tacitly endorsing that.”

Linton and Johnson both serve neighborhoods where students can safely walk or bike to school without crossing major streets.

Johnson also has a middle school next door, Webber, allowing for programs that bring students from one school to the other for advanced work or tutoring sessions or for older siblings to walk to and from school with younger family members.

And, as many of the parents pointed out Friday, it’s the only school in southwest Fort Collins without a “branded” curriculum. The three schools slated to absorb Johnson students — Olander (project-based learning), Lopez (Leader in Me) and McGraw (International Baccalaureate) — all have different programming than a typical neighborhood school.

“IB, project-based, that should be the parents’ choice; that should be a choice only,” Lauren Parajon said. “I should not be forced to take my kid to one of those schools as a neighborhood school; it makes no sense to me. I want traditional public school; that’s what we have here.”

And like the parents at Linton, they’ll fight to keep it.

“It seems like the district was willing to pit one school against another and let the dogs fight, so to speak,” said Kelly Steinway, president of Johnson’s Parent-Teacher Organization. “That’s not what this school is or does. This school is about community, building each other up.

"But it’s our job to protect our children as parents, and if that means fighting for this school, then that’s what we’ll do.”

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Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell and  facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Johnson, Linton elementaries 'blindsided' by new school closure plans