Families in Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District rally against proposed school closures and consolidations
By Sarah Horbacewicz
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COLORADO (KCNC) — Hundreds of Boulder Valley School District families rallied outside Monarch High School on Tuesday, urging the board of the Colorado school district to reconsider a proposal that would close four schools and move other students and programs into different buildings.
The proposal comes after years of declining enrollment across the district, prompting BVSD to consider consolidating schools in an effort to address enrollment and resources.
More than 100 people signed up to speak during Tuesday’s public comment period.
Some parents said the proposal would create another disruption for families who have already dealt with school changes.
“It’s like the last straw on the camel’s back. You know, we don’t know how we’re going to survive this in our community,” Flatirons Elementary parent Alexandra Girard said.
Douglass Elementary is among the schools proposed for closure. Some parents there said they were surprised by the proposal as the school had not been on early warning lists for low enrollment in previous years. The district says it switched to a new comprehensive system for school evaluation for this proposal, including a focus on student populations that lived near their school.
“I was devastated. I was surprised. We specifically chose Douglass because we thought it was a school that wasn’t at risk of closing,” Douglass Elementary parent Megan Citarella said.
Citarella’s family recently moved to live near Douglass Elementary. She said her family is now protesting another potential school move.
“A lot of my friends are sad, and I moved schools a lot, so I don’t want to move anymore,” second grader Corinne Citarella said.
The proposed changes would also affect families in Broomfield.
Birch Elementary School is proposed to close, despite having recently undergone renovations. Parents said they were receiving messages about those improvements around the same time they learned the school could close. The district later apologized for the timing of those announcements.
“We’re getting auto-emails that say, ‘Hey, get excited for the new renovations coming to your school.’ That came on the day that we found out that Birch was closing or proposed to close,” Birch Elementary parent Blake Unis said.
In a previous interview when the proposal was first shared, Superintendent Rob Anderson said consolidating schools could allow it to direct more resources toward students.
However, BVSD has declined to interview since that day, saying the district’s focus at this point is listening to families and community members.
Some parents remain skeptical of that argument and said they want to see the financial reasoning behind the proposed changes.
“First of all we need to think about what’s best for the kids, and second of all, if they want to convince us that it’s saving money, I think they need to show their math on that,” Flatirons Elementary parent Kevin Baum said.
The school board is expected to vote on the current proposal in two weeks.
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