Poudre School District weighs consolidations: Here's a look at draft scenarios
Various draft proposals to deal with declining enrollment in Poudre School District that were presented to the Board of Education on Tuesday night shared a few common themes.
Boundaries for the district’s three elementary schools east of Interstate 25 — Bamford, Bethke and Timnath — would be redrawn to better balance enrollment, and one to three neighborhood schools west of College Avenue in Fort Collins would be closed. Several other boundaries would also be redrawn to better distribute students throughout the district and more fully utilize existing school buildings under the three scenarios presented by representatives of the 37-member Facilities Planning Steering Committee. One scenario included a modified version, and pieces of each could also be combined in different ways, too, committee member and Timnath Middle-High School Principal Jesse Morrill said.
“These scenarios are meant as a point to begin a conversation; they are not the likely scenarios we will be presenting to you in May when we come forward with recommendations," said Josie Plaut, associate director of the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University, which is facilitating the work of the steering committee. “They are here for the purpose of opening conversation and sharing some diverse ways or some different ways of looking at what potential scenarios might look like."
Plaut noted that "not all schools that are currently in the scenarios will be affected," and schools not included in these draft proposals could be "in future scenarios.”
The draft scenarios, available on PSD’s long-range planning website, will be shared again at listening sessions over the next two weeks. Feedback from students, parents, guardians, staff and other community members will be collected to help the steering committee modify and refine the scenarios before it makes recommendations to the Board of Education at a May 28 meeting.
Two of those sessions were set for Wednesday, March 20 — one at 7:30 a.m. at Timnath Middle-High School and the other from 6-8 p.m. at Fort Collins High School.
Future listening sessions are scheduled for:
Monday, March 25 – 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at PSD Support Services Complex, 2407 Laporte Ave., Fort Collins
Monday, March 25 – 6-8 p.m. at Rocky Mountain High School, 1300 W. Swallow Road, Fort Collins
Wednesday March 27 – 6-7 p.m. online (a link will be provided on the PSD long-range planning website)
Thursday, March 28 – 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Lincoln Middle School, 1600 Lancer Drive
Thursday, April 4 – 6-8 p.m. at Future Ready Center at Foothills mall, 215 E. Foothills Parkway, Suite 510 (near the northwest entrance) with interpreters available for those who primarily speak Spanish.
Additional community listening sessions with members of the Board of Education have been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. April 16 in the auditorium at Poudre High School, 201 S. Impala Drive, and June 4 in the auditorium at Fort Collins High, 3400 Lambkin Way.
The school board is scheduled to vote on a recommended plan at its June 11 meeting.
Members of the steering committee considered a variety of approaches, including simply redrawing boundaries to balance enrollment across the district, and a drastic approach that would have closed 13 schools, members Rebecca Everette, Morrill and Plaut said.
More: Enrollment declining slower than projected as Poudre School District weighs consolidations
They agreed to remove Wellington’s schools, which are projected to have adequate space to accommodate expected growth in their attendance areas following the expansion of Eyestone Elementary and the opening of a new middle-high school in 2022, from the evaluation process. Also removed were the three mountain elementary schools, with a combined enrollment this year of 95 students, because of their geographic isolation and the important role of each in its respective community.
What they came up with were three scenarios, with recommendations broken down by three geographical groupings — east (Timberline Road to Timnath), central (College Avenue to Timberline Road) and west (the community of Laporte to College Avenue).
Here’s a look at the draft scenarios and the key benefits, concerns and cost information shared with each:
Scenario A1
Balance enrollments of Timnath, Bethke and Bamford elementary schools by adjusting boundaries between those schools.
Adjust Bamford’s feeder so that it feeds into Preston Middle School and Fossil Ridge High School instead of Timnath Middle-High School.
Consolidate Blevins Middle School into Lincoln, Webber and Boltz middle schools.
Consolidate Beattie and Olander elementary schools into Bennett, Johnson, Lopez and Bauder elementary schools.
Consolidate Cache La Poudre Elementary School into Tavelli, Irish and Putnam elementary schools and consolidate Cache La Poudre Middle School into Lincoln Middle School.
Move Poudre Community Academy and Centennial, both alternative high schools, into the Blevins Middle School building, combining their programs.
Keep Polaris Expeditionary Learning School in its current building but move it to the student-based, rather than zero-based, budgeting model.
Move the district’s transitions programs for 18- to 21-year-olds to Centennial's current building.
Key benefits: Alleviates enrollment pressures on elementary schools and middle-high school in Timnath; increases enrollment at underutilized elementary, middle and high schools; creates space for early childhood and other programming; improves the financial viability of zero-based budgets for alternative and choice programs.
Key concerns: Creates longer transportation times, particularly for students currently attending Cache La Poudre elementary and middle schools.
Cost savings: About 33% ($2.2 million) of size-factor adjustment.
Scenario A2
Same as A1 except:
Make Cache La Poudre elementary and middle schools expeditionary learning schools, leaving the neighborhood boundaries in place, and move Polaris Expeditionary Learning School to the Cache La Poudre campuses, combining them to make a K-12 campus with elementary students at the current elementary school and grades 6-12 at the current middle school.
Key benefits: Expands access to expeditionary learning model.
Key concerns: Distance to Cache la Poudre campuses is about 12 minutes driving time northwest of Polaris’ current location; no public bus transportation to Cache La Poudre campuses.
Cost savings: About 25% ($1.65 million) of size-factor adjustment.
Scenario B
Balance enrollments of Timnath, Bethke and Bamford elementary schools by adjusting boundaries between those schools.
Consolidate Preston Middle School into Kinard Middle School, turning Kinard into a neighborhood school that feeds into Fossil Ridge High School. Adjust boundaries to send students from new Kinard boundary to Boltz Middle School to balance enrollments.
Adjust Bamford Elementary to feed into Kinard Middle School and Fossil Ridge High School instead of Timnath Middle-High School.
Balance enrollments of Bauder and Olander elementary schools by adjusting boundaries between those two schools.
Balance enrollments of Webber and Blevins middle schools by adjusting boundaries between those two schools; move all of Olander into a Blevins Middle School feeder.
Consolidate Lopez Elementary into Johnson, Beattie and McGraw elementary schools.
Consolidate Dunn Elementary into Bennett, Putnam, Irish and Bauder elementary schools. Adjust boundary between Putnam and Irish elementary schools to send more students to Irish.
Adjust boundaries between Lincoln, Lesher and Boltz middle schools to balance enrollments between those schools.
Move Polaris Expeditionary Learning School and Poudre Community Academy, an alternative high school, into the Preston Middle School building but do not combine programs.
Move Poudre Global Academy, a hybrid online school, into the Blevins Middle School building with Blevins but do not combine programs.
Move the Journey Program and Opportunities Unlimited for 18- to 21-year-olds to the Centennial building with Centennial High School but do not combine programs.
Move Transitions Programs for 18- to 21-year-olds to the Poudre Global Academy building.
Key benefits: Alleviates enrollment pressures on elementary schools in Timnath; balances enrollment across several schools while increasing enrollment at underutilized elementary, middle and high schools; may allow for expansion of Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, which has a large waiting list; creates space for early childhood and other programming.
Key concerns: Balancing enrollment without consolidation of schools does not address size-factor budget adjustment; would require renovation of Preston and Blevins to accommodate K-12 programs (playground, restrooms, etc.); difficult to predict where students who currently choice into a school will go if that school is closed or becomes a neighborhood school.
Cost savings: About 30% ($2 million) of size-factor adjustment.
Scenario C
Balance enrollments at Timnath, Bethke and Bamford by adjusting boundaries between those schools.
Convert Timnath Middle-High School into a high school only, sending middle school students to Preston, Boltz and Lesher middle schools.
Turn Linton Elementary School into a dual-language, 100% choice school without a neighborhood boundary. Linton neighborhood students could choice into Linton or be sent to their new neighborhood schools — Zach or Kruse elementaries. Boundaries between Kruse, Werner and Bacon elementary schools would be adjusted to balance enrollments.
Balance enrollments of Bauder and Olander elementary schools by adjusting boundaries between those two schools.
Balance enrollments of Webber and Blevins middle schools by adjusting boundaries between those two schools; move all of Olander into a Blevins Middle School feeder.
Consolidate Lopez Elementary into Johnson, Beattie and McGraw elementary schools.
Consolidate Dunn Elementary into Bennett, Putnam, Irish and Bauder elementary schools. Adjust boundary between Putnam and Irish elementary schools to send more students to Irish.
Adjust boundaries between Lincoln, Lesher and Boltz middle schools to balance enrollments between those schools.
Move Poudre Community Academy into the Lopez building.
Move Poudre Global Academy into the Blevins Middle School building with Blevins but do not combine programs.
Move Transitions Programs into the Poudre Global Academy building.
Move Journey Program and Opportunities Unlimited to the Centennial building with Centennial High School but do not combine programs.
Polaris Expeditionary Learning School remains in its current building but moves from zero-based budgeting to student-based budgeting model.
Key benefits: Alleviates enrollment pressures on elementary schools in Timnath; balances enrollment among several schools; increases enrollment at underutilized elementaries, middle and high schools; creates space for early childhood and other programming; creates dual-language program in central Fort Collins.
Key concerns: Making Timnath Middle-High School a high school only underutilizes the building for the near term and creates significant split feeder from middle to high school; balancing enrollment without consolidation of schools does not address size-factor adjustment; does not facilitate shift from zero-based budgeting for Poudre Global Academy, Centennial or Poudre Community Academy; would require renovation of Blevins to accommodate K-12 programs; difficult to predict where students who currently choice into a school will go if that school is closed or turned into a neighborhood school.
Cost savings: About 30% ($2 million) of size-factor adjustment.
Why PSD is weighing school consolidations
“The reason for consolidating is really two-fold,” Plaut said. “There is declining enrollment happening at Poudre School District, and across our state and nation, and that’s showing up here in 2,200 seniors this year and only 1,600 kindergartners. So, we can see evidence of declining enrollment through our class sizes. The most recent count is there are 256 students less in Poudre School District this year than there were last year, and there’s an anticipation of a 9 1/4% decline over the next few years, so that’s not a long period of time.”
That decline, based on annual enrollment drops projected by PSD staff and its contracted outside demographer, Flo Analytics, would be more than double what actually occurred from 2022-23 to 2023-24 and equate to budget reductions of about $8 million a year and $40 million over five years from an overall annual budget of about $400 million, Superintendent Brian Kingsley said.
Projections state demographer Nancy Gedeon presented remotely to the school board during a Feb. 20 meeting, and those prepared by the Colorado Education Association that were shared with the Coloradoan, suggest slower enrollment drops over the next few years with potential growth again in 10 to 15 years.
More: Enrollment declining slower than projected as Poudre School District weighs consolidations
The Facilities Planning Steering Committee was tasked with “short-term challenges and solutions … that can be implemented for the ’24-25 school year,” said Everette, Larimer County’s community development director and a Fort Collins native with children in PSD schools.
PSD has more than 3,000 empty seats in its schools this year and is spending $6.6 million in additional funding to subsidize student-based budgets in underutilized buildings to continue providing equitable services and educational opportunities for students in those schools, PSD Chief Financial Officer Dave Montoya said.
Ideally, Montoya said, elementary schools would have 400 or more students and secondary schools would have 700 or more to function optimally and efficiently from a financial standpoint. Fourteen of PSD’s 31 elementary schools have fewer than 400 students in kindergarten through fifth grade this year, although early childhood programs for preschoolers push some back above that level.
All seven members of the school board acknowledged the difficult work the Facilities Planning Steering Committee has been tasked with and thanked them for taking it on.
“This is hard,” board chair Kristen Draper said. “This is probably some of the hardest work we’ve ever had to do at PSD, and I’m venturing to guess it’s probably some of the hardest work you all have ever had to do.”
Dig into PSD enrollment data
Coloradoan reporter Kelly Lyell compiled enrollment data, capital costs, program details and more for each of PSD's non-charter schools:
▶ See data for PSD non-charter elementary schools here.
▶ See data for PSD non-charter middle schools here.
▶ See data for PSD non-charter high schools here.
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: Poudre School District weighs consolidations: Here are draft scenarios
