The Board votes September 22
Now tell the Board how you feel
A ready-to-send email for every board member, opening with these words. About two minutes.
Write to the Board →My children were affected by BVSD’s last round of school closures in 2003/04, when the district was responding to enrollment concerns and families were told that consolidation was necessary and responsible. Yet to my knowledge, BVSD has never documented whether those closures actually saved money or improved educational outcomes, or fully assessed the broader impacts on families and neighborhoods, including whether closures contributed to families leaving for private schools, driving across town to other schools, or relying more heavily on open enrollment. Nor did BVSD demonstrate how the closures were the best option available to families, teachers and neighborhoods. If the district is asking the community to accept another round of irreversible closures in response to projected enrollment declines, it should first provide a comprehensive post-mortem on the results of the last round. In evaluating the current proposal, the community deserves transparency from BVSD: a school-by-school financial analysis based on actual costs, not just formula-driven per-pupil assumptions. Parents also deserve to know how the schools proposed for closure are performing compared with their peers, because this decision should ultimately be about what is best for our children. Transparency is essential so families, teachers, taxpayers and city leaders can evaluate whether closures are truly the best option for students and the broader community. The financial analysis should include total costs, both operating costs and capital costs. After the last round of closures, BVSD voters approved a 2006 bond authorizing $296.8 million in debt, with a disclosed repayment cost of $629.45 million and district taxes increased up to $31.65 million annually. Since then, BVSD voters have authorized an additional $926.5 million in bond debt for facility improvements, with maximum repayment costs of approximately $2.065 billion. Bond-funded renovations are not free money; they are repaid by taxpayers through property taxes, with interest. The community deserves to know how much of that taxpayer-funded investment went into schools that received students after prior closures, how much additional bond money has since been invested in schools now proposed for closure, consolidation or receiving additional students, and what future capital costs taxpayers may be asked to absorb if these closures move forward. The city’s updated Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan also anticipates substantially more housing capacity and emphasizes 15-minute neighborhoods. BVSD should explain how those long-range planning assumptions have been factored into any decision to permanently reduce neighborhood school capacity. Closures and cuts are not the only options available. In 2003/04, parents proposed revenue-generating options such as after-hours, school-break and summer programming or rentals, but those ideas were not meaningfully considered in the final decisions or analysis. Administrative cost reductions also need to be examined before BVSD permanently reduces school capacity. BVSD should be more open to educational models that work for smaller schools, rather than defaulting to a one-size-fits-all model built around three classrooms per grade. Mapleton Elementary successfully used multi-grade classrooms before it was closed and, based on the actual operating cost information available to parents at the time, appeared to be one of the least expensive elementary schools in the system. BVSD’s own Community Montessori uses a multi-age model today, consistent with Montessori practice. These models may not be right for every school, but they deserve serious consideration rather than being dismissed as nonviable. After the last round of closures, BVSD’s enrollment did not continue to decline: K–12 enrollment grew from 27,547 students in 2003 to 29,982 in 2019, and elementary enrollment grew from 11,874 to 12,466. That history calls for caution before permanently reducing educational and neighborhood capacity based on today’s projections.
The Board votes September 22
A ready-to-send email for every board member, opening with these words. About two minutes.
Write to the Board →