Why does D51 keep closing schools?
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Nine hundred and forty students will go to a different school next fall in Mesa County.
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, District 51 school board members voted to close three elementary schools in the Grand Valley, citing declining enrollment and poor building conditions.
A committee tasked with addressing declining enrollment throughout the district recommended closing Scenic Elementary and Clifton Elementary. The reason for closing Nisley Elementary, the third school shutting down next year, is years of academic underperformance based on Colorado Department of Education criteria.
East Middle School and the Fruita 8/9 school shut down last year, with the district citing low enrollment, and a consolidation of teachers and students being a better use of resources. Those closures save the district more than $3 million in recurring costs, according to superintendent Brian Hill.
“There's almost 27 positions that we are staffing in our elementary schools right now, that we don't actually have the funding for because we don't have the kids for it,” he said.
Every school district in Colorado receives funding per pupil, based on a formula that considers cost of living and size of the district. There are about 20,000 students in D51, and 45 school buildings. Staff estimates the number of elementary students will decrease by nearly 300 next year.
“We’re utilizing about 65% of our available seats at elementary schools. Ideally, you should be utilizing around 85% or more of your building space to have a good utilization,” said Hill. “If you look at it mathematically, we have too many elementary school buildings for the amount of kids we have.”
Out of 178 school districts in Colorado, D51 is nearly last in per-pupil funding, ranking 174th with about $10,000 per student. That’s a combination of money from the state, and taxes approved by voters in Mesa County.
In a report recommending the closures, the Elementary Declining Enrollment Committee says that Scenic Elementary would require nearly $8 million in renovations to fix issues with lights, plumbing, and HVAC systems. The report says it would take $14 million to fix similar problems with Clifton Elementary.
The committee, made up of staff, teachers, parents and community members, used a set of criteria to score candidates for closure. No school names were used in the process.
Parents and students that spoke at the November 19 school board meeting painted a different picture of the schools set to close, especially Scenic.
During hours of public comment that stretched the meeting past midnight, students from Clifton and Scenic talked about how much they love their teachers and friends at school. Parents described how essential the before and after school program at Clifton is for those who work long hours.
“It was a surprise to all of us. We honestly did not think Clifton was going to be one of the schools,” said Heather Cochrane. One of her kids is currently enrolled at Clifton, her two high schoolers went when they were younger, and her three-year-old son would’ve started pre-school there next year.
“I went to kindergarten with the same kids that I graduated with. That's also what I want for Violet. That whole shake up there is going to make a difference,” she said of her daughter.
Students at Scenic earned the highest academic achievement rating possible in English language arts and math, but a lower score on science, according to the department of education. In 2022 and 2023, Scenic received the John Irwin Schools of Excellence Awards for academic achievement.
Eighty-five percent of students at Clifton and 84% at Nisley qualify for free and reduced lunch. The district average is 53%.
Closing schools across the state
The number of families with school-aged kids moving to Colorado has declined in the last decade. The majority of migration to Mesa County over the last decade has been by people aged 55 and older. According to the state demographic data, the under-18 population in Mesa County has declined dramatically, while that same population has surged along parts of the Front Range.
From 2014 to 2023, the number of charter schools operating in Colorado increased from 202 to 269. In the last 10 years over 100 public schools have closed in the state.
Homeschooling increased by 8% in the 2023-24 school year.
The Denver Public School board just voted to close seven schools, and partially close or restructure three others.
Some parents see opportunity
Another parent remembered the outdoor spaces from when he attended Scenic, catching crawdads in a ditch behind the school. “I know that it meant a lot to me academically, but my fondest memories are of outside the building, the surrounding area of it,” said Josh Worth. “I truly think that's what makes Scenic special, the teachers incorporate a lot of that into their lessons.”
Now, parents will wait to find out exactly where their kids will go after the upcoming spring semester. After the board voted to approve the closures, the work of finalizing the boundary changes began. Boundaries of nearby schools will be redrawn to include neighborhoods previously served by the closing schools.
Some parents are taking a more active role in the future of their kid’s education. Worth is part of a group that sent a letter to D51, declaring their intent to create Scenic View Charter School and open it in fall 2025.
“Once we did some diving in and spoke to some of the local people that have started [charter schools], we just identified how much of an asset this could be to the community and how much of an asset it could be to D51,” he said.
About 100 parents filled out an interest form for the new charter.
“[Let’s] use it as an opportunity, to not just make it about the Scenic the kids, but what about bringing in all these kids from Nisley and Clifton elementaries, where they may otherwise have not had the opportunity to be in such a great environment,” said Worth.
Worth and other parents brought up the charter school at the last in-person board meeting of the year, on December 10.
Also at that meeting, the board discussed new boundaries for each of the closing schools, so parents have that information when school choice applications open in January.
“As soon as that happens, we'll communicate that with families that are impacted by the closures and let them know, this is where your child would be going to school next year,” said Hill.
Right now, Cochrane is sitting with the uncertainty.
“I really want her to go to Taylor [Elementary]. Out of all the schools at this point, that's what I'd like to choose. If the boundary is that she doesn't get to go to Taylor, then I'm going to have to try school of choice,” she said.
With the school of choice program, parents can apply for a spot at a school outside of the boundary they live in.
There are two scenarios for what schools Clifton students will go to after the closure. In one, students would be split between Thunder Mountain, Chatfield and Rocky Mountain. In the second, Taylor Elementary instead of Thunder Mountain.
Staff recommended the Taylor scenario at the meeting on Tuesday, based on a survey of parents in the current Clifton boundary.
The board will decide on that recommendation, and new boundaries for the other closing schools, at a special meeting on Thursday.