With School Closures Back on the Table Will Your Neighborhood School be the Next to Close?
Shortly after arriving in Jeffco, Superintendent Glass announced there would be a moratorium on school closures. The announcement came months after dozens of Jeffco School communities found their neighborhood school threated with closure. Some schools were nearly full, some had enrollment far below the building’s capacity. Some schools were high performing schools, some had experienced low student achievement. Some buildings were in need of millions of dollars of improvements and some buildings were in decent condition.
The one thing that all the schools had in common was enrollment was below 300 students. This board had decided that schools with under 300 students were not running efficiently. After months of conversation the school board closed Pleasant View elementary. With the moratorium on school closures many communities breathed a sigh of relief.
In the intervening years, the community expected the school board to set guidelines and policies for school closures so that no community would find themselves surprised to find their neighborhood school threatened with closure as Peck, Pennington, Stober and Swanson had been threatened.
So with the moratorium on school closures lifted and enrollment down 2800 students many communities are now wondering if their neighborhood schools will be closed.
Sources:
Chalkbeat “Jeffco Board Votes to Close One Elementary School//”