Other districts already know the pain as DPS recommends closures

Denver Public Schools will announce school closure recommendations on Thursday — but this isn’t the first Colorado district to go through the painful process of closing neighborhood schools, and it won’t be the last.

In November 2022 – Jeffco Public Schools It was decided to close 16 primary schools At the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. The district closed two more K-8 schools at the end of the 2023-2024 school year. By region, the school-age population (ages 5-19) in the county decreased by 29,918 from 2000 to 2020. The State Demographics office reports that the birth rate in Jefferson’s County peaked in 2000 and has continued to decline since then.

Jeffco found new uses for some of the 16 shuttered elementary schools. Campbell elementary school in Arvada was converted into a kindergarten. Witt elementary school in Westminster is leased to the Austin Center for Exceptional Students. The former Coal Creek Canyon k-8 in Golden reopened this year as a new charter school, Jefferson Academy Coal Creek Canyon.

Some of the other old school buildings currently for sale.

Aurora Public Schools also faced demographic changes. In recent years, many schools have been closed or repurposed as magnet schools.. The building, which was formerly Sable primary school, was transformed into a child development center this year. Paris Primary School reopened as a community center with a focus on mental health.

Many other school districts in Colorado face the same challenges due to declining birth rates and declining elementary school enrollment among aging households. Next spring, the Douglas County School District plans to announce Schools in Highlands Ranch It will be closed and merged due to decreasing enrollment.

Poudre school district It would be announced that schools would close in May 2024but suspended the plans following social protests. The district still hasn’t determined how it will address declining enrollment and budget shortfalls.