Adria Iraheta joined the Denver7 news team in January 2024. After spending the past decade making her way across the country, the Los Angeles native is thrilled to be back out west!
Douglas County School District leaders are considering consolidating some schools in Highlands Ranch, citing declining enrollment in the area as reasoning for future changes.The district is looking at ‘pairing’ up to six elementary schools in the Highlands Ranch High School, Mountain Vista High School and ThunderRidge High School feeder areas.
In other words, three of those elementary schools would ‘absorb’ another three schools nearby.As the district prepares a list of criteria to figure out which schools will be impacted by the change, Douglas County schools is hoping to get input from families through the process.Wednesday marked the first of four community meetings regarding school pairings.Dozens of parents filled the Ranch View Middle School library that morning, and what was supposed to be an hour long meeting went thirty minutes over due to the amount of questions and input from families.DCSD Chief of Staff Steve Collela was there answering those questions.To prepare, DCSD will use $20 million of the recently passed $490 million bond to improve and maintain receiving buildings for additional students, increased programming, and any other facility need.Some parents raised the concerns about how the districts said, it comes down to a matter of sustainability.Collela told Denver7, some of the schools with lower enrollment only have around 250-300 students currently enrolled.He broke down the costs, saying it costs the district an additional $2,500 per student per year to keep those school operating.That money goes into making sure the schools have adequate resources compared to larger schools. The district says overflowing schools and shrinking schools result in limited opportunities, so these changes would maximize educational opportunities for students.“That $2,500 per kid deficit is ongoing. The board has $20 million to help us repurpose those schools. That's all one-time money. The money that we're talking about in terms of if we need to smooth over with staff in case they can't find a position right away. That's all one-time money. But the savings ongoing is going to be exponential over a period of time,” Collela said.The plan to implement these school pairings is still in the beginning phases. The DCSD School Board will solidify criteria for school pairings in January 2025.The list of schools will be finalized in April 2025, but the changes would not go into effect until the start of the 2026 school year. Read DCSD's full breakdown of its plan here.
DCSD DCSD Chief Of Staff Steve Collela DPS Denver Public Schools Jeffco Public Schools Nicole Brady Declining Enrollment Colorado Schools Douglas County School District Douglas County Schools
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