Don't ask these kids to be resilient again.

• Monarch PK-5 grades will close and students will be split three ways between Fireside, Superior, and Eldorado.
• Eldorado PK-8 grades 6-8 will close and Eldorado becomes PK-5 only.
• Middle school boundaries are redrawn to combine the Monarch 6-8 and Eldorado 6-8 areas into one attendance zone feeding the reconfigured Monarch building.
• Reconfiguration of the Monarch building to a middle school is estimated to cost $3-3.5 million.
• Monarch's robust ILC program will be uprooted to Eldorado.

• The Monarch building

  The current utilization of the building as a PK-8 is 81% (721 students/890 capacity). With the reconfiguration to a middle school, BVSD projects that the utilization will be a max of 67% next year and a max of 58% by 2030.

• The Eldorado building

  Additionally, the utilization of the proposed Eldorado K-5 is only 60-64% next year and 62-66% for 2030, however, those metrics only account for half of the physical building. The Eldorado building has a capacity of 568 for K-5 and 494 for 6-8 for a total of 1062 students. There are currently 514 PK-8 students at Eldorado for a utilization of 48%. Under the proposal, the utilization for 2027-28 would be 365/1062 for a utilization of 34%.

• Apples to oranges

  BVSD is comparing apples to oranges when it breaks up PK-8 schools into K-5 and 6-8 in order to attempt to compare them to other K-5 and 6-8 schools. A PK-8 educational model allows for the sharing of many resources that helps to maximize efficiency of staff and physical space.

References: Slides 37 & 39 of “Resilient Schools Proposal Final 08-25-2026” · BVSD Enrollment Statistics as of August 28, 2026

• Where the fire hit

  The Monarch PK-8 attendance area experienced a higher concentration of family displacements from the Marshall Fire than any other boundary in the district. The current Monarch PK-8 area alone lost 493 homes—nearly 45% of all homes destroyed countywide. Furthermore, the proposed closures of Monarch K-5, Douglass, and Mesa directly affect neighborhoods that contained 57% of all destroyed homes.

• Still rebuilding, five years on

  These families have been struggling and fighting to rebuild for the last 5 years and things are still not settled. Pre-fire families are just returning and new young families are moving in. Families chose to rebuild for the Monarch PK-8 community and the continuity provided by the PK-8 model of education.

• Asked to be resilient, again

  These families have asked their children to be resilient over and over and they are tired. These kids should not be asked to be resilient again - especially without a clear benefit.

• What the proposal leaves out

  As these families finally rebuild and return, the district's Resilient Schools proposal fails to account for the ongoing impact of the Marshall Fire on enrollment or provide any justification for further disrupting these fire-affected communities.

• Free or reduced lunch, and English language learners

  According to BVSD's Enrollment website, in the 2025-26 school year, 22% of Monarch K-8 students were eligible for free or reduced lunch, compared with 16% from Eldorado K-8 and 8% from Superior Elementary. Monarch K-8's population included 9% ELL students, while Eldorado K-8 had 5% and Superior Elementary had 3%.

• ILC, IEP and 504 plans

  Monarch PK-8 has a large number of students who benefit from ILC/IEP/504 plans: 122 (18%) identified as SPED and 71 (10%) with 504 plans in 2025-26. This proposal would be especially disruptive to this population.

• Nearly half of Monarch families chose it

  Nearly 50% of Monarch families have made an active choice to join this community through open-enrollment for the K-8 model, proximity to Monarch High School, and easy access to Hwy 36. By closing Monarch PK-8 and making it a middle school, families no longer have the option of a K-12 school campus.

• Open enrollment, twice, without priority

  Additionally, this proposal does not have meaningful ways to keep open enrolled students with the students in their cohort. Furthermore, families chose Monarch for the entire K-8 experience, but will now have to go through the open enrollment process a second time if they want to return to Monarch for middle school, but without priority status.

• Teachers who are Monarch parents

  Many of the wonderful Monarch K-8 teachers have children open-enrolled into the school. Again, there is no ability for them to plan for their professional future and their children's academic future under this proposal.

The K-8 model has a number of advantages that should be taken into account:

• Transition advantage

  K-8s provide a smoother transition from elementary to middle school, which can be a primary source of academic and emotional vulnerability. Research suggests that the K-8 model may alleviate decreases in student achievement during transition years (Rockoff & Lockwood, 2010; Schwerdt & West, 2011).

• Longitudinal advantage

  In a traditional 6–8 middle school, staff have at most 36 months to get to know a child and their family before they move on to high school. K-8s provide student-teacher familiarity and sustained family engagement.

• Older/younger relationship advantage

  In a K-8, middle schoolers step into leadership roles which fosters maturity and accountability and having younger peers keeps adolescent kids from growing up too fast.

• Increased academic opportunities between K-8 and high school

  The proximity of Monarch K-8 to Monarch High allows high school students to have learning and leadership opportunities at the K-8.