BVSD Board of Education · Votes Tuesday, Sept 22

Vote NO on the current Resilient Schools proposal.

We believe BVSD needs to address declining enrollment. We also believe irreversible decisions require a complete plan and the best available information.

BVSD is proposing major changes to schools and communities across the district, and once made, these decisions can't be undone. The proposal doesn't hit the target it was built for: an unclear process, and barely a dent in savings or empty seats. An incomplete plan that fails its own goals all but guarantees more closures to come, and no one knows who is next. On September 22, we urge the Board to vote NO until a stronger proposal that serves all students is presented.

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…until the Board votes · Tue Sept 22
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No school is safe

This isn't just about the schools on today's closure list.

The current proposal is one stage of a much larger restructuring of BVSD. Decisions about additional schools, programs, boundaries, and feeder patterns remain unresolved. That means every BVSD community has a stake in getting the process right now.

Watch: why the current proposal affects all of us.

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33 district-run elementary and K-8 schools. 16 are in this proposal.

What about the schools that aren't marked?

The district has said that further consolidations, middle schools, boundaries and programs are still to be decided. A school that isn't marked below hasn't been ruled out. It just hasn't come up yet.

Status as presented to the Board on Aug 25, 2026: four closures, two relocations, two K-8 reconfigurations, and the schools receiving those students. Dual-language programs and middle school boundaries were left for a later decision.

Proposed to close Merged, moved, reconfigured, or receiving students Not in this proposal
Alicia Sanchez Aspen Creek K-8 Bear Creek Birch BCSIS Coal Creek Columbine Community Montessori Creekside Crest View Douglass Eisenhower Eldorado PK-8 Emerald Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer Fireside Flatirons Foothill Gold Hill Heatherwood High Peaks Jamestown Kohl Lafayette Louisville Meadowlark PK-8 Mesa Monarch PK-8 Nederland Ryan Superior University Hill Whittier International

Three reasons to vote no

The plan isn't finished, the math doesn't work, and the long-term picture just changed.

Reason 01

Step1of?

They're voting on page one of a plan nobody has finished.

Middle schools, boundaries, dual-language and further consolidations are all still to come. Kids deserve to see the whole plan first.

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01

The plan isn't finished, and kids deserve better

An incomplete plan fails the kids it's supposed to serve. The Board should see the whole picture before closing schools.

  • The proposal doesn't address every school in the district

    Further consolidations, middle schools, boundaries, dual-language programs and feeder patterns are all left for later. The Board is being asked to decide this round without seeing the next.

  • Some students could be disrupted more than once

    Families moved under this proposal may face another major change when subsequent decisions are made.

  • The promised benefits aren't guaranteed

    BVSD has pointed to more sustainable class sizes, stronger staffing, and greater programming opportunities, but families have not been given concrete commitments about what students will actually experience.

  • Receiving schools need real plans

    Facilities. Transportation. Childcare. Staffing. Programming. SAC capacity. Traffic and arrival. These questions should be answered before, not after, consolidation is approved.

  • Staff and communities matter

    Students shouldn't unnecessarily lose trusted teachers, paraeducators, peers, programs, and support systems along with their school building.

  • Equity must be considered throughout

    Repeated transitions, transportation changes, program changes, and loss of established support systems will not affect every student equally. The cumulative impacts on students and families should be understood before decisions are made.

Reason 02

1%of the district budget, at best

Closing four schools saves this. The building changes alone cost up to $10M.

Research on closures elsewhere finds the savings evaporate. Prove them, net of transition costs, and compare the alternatives first.

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02

Closing schools doesn't save what it promises

Fiscal responsibility means proving the savings and studying the alternatives first.

  • The district's own numbers barely move

    BVSD projects $3.5 to $4 million a year in savings, under 1 percent of its budget, against up to $10 million in facility changes plus transition costs. Boulder's elementary buildings go from 63 percent full to 68 percent, and a third of seats stay empty.

  • Research says the savings evaporate

    A 2026 Stanford study of California closures found districts essentially broke even: spending and revenue each fell about $440 per student, districts lost about 287 students within five years of a closure, and staffing didn't shrink.

  • Boulder has been here before

    BVSD consolidated schools in 2000 and closed more in 2003, and has never told the public what it saved. Only about 120 of the 300 to 400 families expected to follow their assignment did. In 2014 the district asked voters for a $576 million bond, then the largest school bond in Colorado, to fix and expand its buildings.

  • Look next door

    Jeffco closed 16 elementary schools in 2022. This November it is asking voters for $133 million in tax increases.

  • Alternatives were never put on the table

    Shared-use buildings, focus programs placed in under-enrolled schools, boundary and open-enrollment reform, and trimming administrative growth should be modeled and compared before a single school closes.

  • Ask for the receipts

    Before voting, the Board should see the savings net of one-time costs, year by year, and the same analysis for each alternative.

Reason 03

BVSD: fewer kids
Boulder: more homes

The city just changed its long-term plan. BVSD hasn't rerun the math.

Closing a school is easy. Recreating public school capacity in Boulder decades from now is not.

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03

Boulder just changed the long-term picture

BVSD is planning for decline. Boulder is planning for substantially more housing.

Boulder has just adopted a new long-term Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan that could significantly increase the amount of housing the city can accommodate.

That doesn't mean enrollment will suddenly increase. But it does mean we should make sure BVSD's assumptions about the next 10 to 20 years still make sense before permanently eliminating school capacity.

  • Boulder is planning for more housing

    The new Comprehensive Plan creates substantially greater potential housing capacity than the plan it replaces.

  • More housing changes the assumptions

    More homes don't automatically mean more BVSD students. But housing availability and affordability are among the factors affecting enrollment. BVSD should model multiple scenarios based on Boulder's newly adopted plans.

  • Use the newest information

    The City's long-range planning and BVSD's long-range planning should not happen in isolation.

  • Don't give up capacity we may need again

    Enrollment changes. Demographics change. Housing policy changes. Closing a school is easy compared with trying to recreate public school capacity in Boulder decades from now.

Hear from our communities

What's at stake isn't just a building.

Schools are communities of students, educators, families, neighbors, programs, traditions, and relationships. The schools most directly affected by the current proposal have created resources explaining what the proposal means for their communities.

Boulder · Proposed to close

Flatirons Elementary

Slated to close after the 2026–27 school year, with its attendance area split between Foothill and Whittier.

Visit saveflatirons.org → Boulder · Proposed to close

Douglass Elementary

Slated to close, with its attendance area divided among Coal Creek, Eisenhower and Heatherwood, and High Peaks moving into the building.

Visit savedouglass.com → Boulder · Proposed to close

Mesa Elementary

Slated to close and merge into Bear Creek Elementary at the Bear Creek site, with its AIM and RISE programs moving there too.

Visit savemesaelementary.org →
How this coalition relates to each school's campaign

Different schools may have different concerns and preferred solutions. Better Plan BVSD does not replace those individual advocacy efforts. We are united around one shared request: don't make irreversible decisions until the broader plan is complete.

This isn't about stopping change

It's about getting the plan right.

We recognize BVSD has a real enrollment challenge. We support making difficult decisions when they are necessary to create stronger, more sustainable schools. But decisions being made today will shape BVSD for decades. Before making them, BVSD should:

  • Complete the districtwide plan
  • Incorporate Boulder's new long-term growth strategy
  • Protect students from repeated disruption
  • Define the educational improvements consolidation will deliver
  • Ensure receiving schools have the resources they need
  • Understand and address inequitable impacts
  • Prove the savings, net of transition costs, and compare the alternatives
  • Preserve flexibility for an uncertain future

No school is safe

Today's proposal affects some schools directly. Tomorrow's decisions could affect yours.

The best time to demand a complete, transparent, districtwide plan is before irreversible decisions are made.

Watch & share Join the coalition

Join the coalition

Ask the BVSD Board to vote no.

Individuals

I support asking the BVSD Board to vote NO on the current Resilient Schools proposal and return with a comprehensive plan before making irreversible school-closure decisions.
Add my name

Businesses & organizations

Our business or organization supports the call for BVSD to complete its long-term plan and fully evaluate current information before making irreversible school-closure decisions.
Add our organization

Write to the Board

Email all seven members at once at bvs.board@bvsd.org. It's part of the public record. Two or three sentences in your own words beat a form letter: who you are, which school, and the ask: vote no, finish the plan.

Email the Board Sign up to speak Sept 8
Board members and district leadership

Our coalition

Families. Educators. Neighbors. Businesses. Community organizations.

Participating school communities

Flatirons Elementary Douglass Elementary Mesa Elementary Your school next

Thousands of Boulder Valley families are already organizing, school by school.

Join them

The ask is simple

Vote No. Finish the Plan. Get It Right.

We can address declining enrollment without rushing irreversible decisions. Let's build a plan that works for all BVSD students, today and for the Boulder Valley we're planning for tomorrow. Real resilience is giving kids a structure they can build a future around.

Join the coalition Show up on Sept 8

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The coalition sign-on form isn't available at the moment. In the meantime, add your name to a school community's petition. Every signature is counted toward the total on this page.

Keep Flatirons Elementary open Save Douglass Elementary Save Mesa Elementary

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