School closures are no longer on the agenda for the Jefferson County School District, at least for now.
But taking other measures including boundary changes and enrollment caps to help balance populations at school buildings are now a top priority, a Jeffco School Board member told parents Monday night.
“There is not any talk of school closures right now, not at all,” board member Danielle Varda said. “The superintendent has said she will not be closing high schools, so hopefully that will make you feel good.”
Varda spoke to a small group of parents at a forum hosted by Annie Contractor, a new Jefferson County School District Accountability Committee member. Parents from the seven schools surrounding Standley High School were invited to talk to Varda about issues in the east portion of the Jeffco District.
Long-term enrollment declines in Jeffco led the district to close 21 schools since 2021, according to Chalkbeat. Jeffco’s total enrollment in 2022-23 was 77,078 students, down from more than 86,000 in 2017-18, Chalkbeat states. The district said that their buildings had space to serve 96,000 students, but were only serving 69,0000 in 2022-23, Chalkbeat said.
Although the spasm of school closures appears over, schools with low enrollment and others bursting at the seams remain a problem, Varda told parents. The district is looking to shift some school boundaries to better balance school populations, Varda said.
“But so far nothing has been recommended, so there is nothing to worry about,” Varda said.
Varda said the district is also looking at implementing enrollment caps at some schools and blocking new families from enrolling their children at schools at or near 100% enrollment, she said.
Building loyalty
Standley Lake Principal Todd Rago told the parents they need to be more cohesive in developing strategies to build more loyalty to schools in the Standley Lake area.
“(School) choice complicates things…people are going to go where they want to go,” Rago said. “The vested interest isn’t in my building. It would be nice to get everyone in the same room to share a common goal.”
Contractor said some Standley Lake area parents may still be concerned if their children’s own school is near the enrollment levels of schools that were recently closed.
“School communities have expressed fear that they will be next,” Contractor said.
Contractor said other concerns voiced by Standley Lake parents include:
- Parents have expressed concern that they do not have visibility into how schools are making decisions around Unified Improvement Plans, budgets, and school supports such as busing decisions.
- Families have raised concerns that they learned about safety situations that concerned their child much later, through form emails, and without specifics, making it hard to trust that their kids are in a safe environment.
- Parents have expressed trepidation about speaking up on issues they are worried about, citing fears that their children will face retaliation from school adults.
- Families have raised concerns of seeing bullying themselves without adults intervening and kids reporting an environment where they ae discourage from speaking up.
- Families are reporting struggles with getting what they need for their students both for students not at grade level and those students seeing low growth but performing above the grade standard. Families in both groups have expressed frustration that their student is not being met where they are.