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School closures and consolidation concerns remain a hot topic during the school board engagement session

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School closures and consolidation concerns remain a hot topic during the school board engagement session

Voter approval of a debt-free levy gave the Poudre School District more time to address declining enrollment, but it did not solve the problem.

That was the main source of discussion Thursday evening during a public engagement session with three members of the Board of Education at Johnson Elementary School, one of a handful of low-enrollment schools mentioned for possible closure last spring.

Thirty-six people, all but a handful of parents of Johnson students, attended the session in the school’s media center. A similar session with other board members the same evening at Bacon Elementary School drew only six participants, according to PSD security personnel.

While some parents took the opportunity to express their frustration and anger over the district’s handling of the closure and consolidation discussion, tasking a steering committee with making recommendations based primarily on capacity building and enrollment numbers, the greater concern was the way in which schools got into trouble. against each other during that process.

“There’s still a lot of anger and frustration about schools being pitted against each other,” said Josh Reyling, a parent of two students at Lopez Elementary, a school that was also “on the chopping block” under some of the recommended plans .

“We need to reframe and move forward,” Reyling said, echoing what appeared to be a common sentiment among those in attendance, including Board of Education President Kristen Draper and members Jim Brokish and Kevin Havelda.

More: After one year, the Poudre School District’s enrollment decline is equal to that of a large elementary school

Each of the school board members apologized for the way the process unfolded, while acknowledging that these discussions will still need to happen in the coming years if enrollment continues to decline. PSD has 390 fewer students in its non-chartered schools this year than last year, and 352 fewer overall, according to the Colorado Department of Education’s official count released Wednesday.

“Did we solve our financial problems by passing (ballot measure) 4A? No, said Draper. “What we did was get a really nice bandage, and what this is going to do is give us about three years, three to five years to slow everything down, make sure we look at every nook and cranny and figure out how to It is best to look at what is happening with the registrations, what is happening in different places in the neighborhood.”

Details are still being worked out on how a new standing committee should focus on long-term planning in the district. Registrations for volunteer members close on January 31. And the state Legislature is reworking the School Finance Act, which funds schools based on student enrollment. counts.

Poudre School District Board of Education members Jim Brokish, second from left, Kevin Havelda and Kristen Draper, host a public engagement session with 36 participants Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, at Johnson Elementary School in Fort Collins, Colo.

So Draper and the other board members were unable to provide the details that many in the public were hoping to learn about what metrics and other factors would be used in evaluating future school closures and consolidations.

But the feedback they received Thursday evening will be part of those discussions, Draper, Brokish and Haveelda assured them during the planned 90-minute session and the informal conversations they had with individual attendees for another 45 minutes afterward.

“I love being able to have a conversation with our community, and I’m just happy to hear what people have to say,” Draper said afterward. “We still have some repairs to do. We still have some work to do. We still have a few things we need to work on. I never thought we were ready, but it’s good to hear directly from the community about what we need to work on.”

While concerns about school funding and fears of future closures and consolidations dominated the discussion, other topics were also discussed.

  • Several parents expressed concerns about how the school choice application and process is marketed by the district itself, as well as the charter schools it authorizes.

  • A few parents suggested the district should start installing solar panels on its schools, not only for environmental sustainability, but also for the long-term energy cost savings they could provide. In response, Haveelda noted that schools can generate excess solar energy during the summer when they are not in use to build credit to offset energy costs during the school year.

  • Dani Lawrence, parent of a student at Rocky Mountain High School, asked what the district was doing to address the low performance of students with special needs in the integrated services program, noting that they consistently score below the state average on standardized tests.

Additional community engagement sessions, each with two or more school board members, are scheduled for Feb. 20 at Dunn and Kruse elementary schools and April 17 at Rice and Timnath elementary schools. The sessions last from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM and registration is not required.

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

This article originally appeared in the Fort Collins Coloradoan: School closure concerns dominate PSD school board engagement session

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