'We have heard you': PSD school board halts plans to close, consolidate schools

With more than 500 people protesting outside, Poudre School District’s Board of Education halted its plans to close and consolidate schools in a special meeting Monday night.

A motion to end the process was made at the start of the meeting, and the seven board members individually shared why they each thought the process needed to stop now, without the closure of any schools.

The vote to halt the plan was unanimous, and applause broke out in the room and outside with those still gathered.

“We have heard you, and it has made a difference,” board member Scott Schoenbauer said. “The passion that we have seen starting in October has been impressive and has made it very clear that the last thing we should consider is closing a school, a neighborhood school, until we have exhausted every other option.”

At its previous meeting May 14, the school board voted to accept as final recommendations four revised scenarios from a 37-member Facilities Planning Steering Committee that each called for the closure of five neighborhood schools.

Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the seven-member Board of Education have said repeatedly that the district needs to close and consolidate some schools and change the boundaries of others to address declining enrollment and the associated reductions in per-pupil funding.

More: Blevins Middle School students stage walkout over PSD plans to potentially close school

The motion passed Monday night specifically blocked closing any schools during the 2025-26 school year, which is when the plans were scheduled to take effect. Several board members said the district still needs to address declining enrollment and the per-pupil funding effort but that a more thorough and transparent process — involving the school board directly and utilizing more community resources and collaboration with other government agencies — is necessary.

“Our community has been in turmoil for months,” board member Jessica Zamora said. “I, more than some, believed that we could be successful with this process, and I see a problem in our infrastructure and enrollment and want to do everything I can to fix it.

“I am the type of person who wants to power through difficult problems, because our community deserves my energy and commitment. But I know these decisions have wide-reaching impacts; it is unfair to expect that level of work from our community or steering committee to continue this process.

“Our last board meeting made clear to me that, as a board, we do not have a clear path forward. I cannot expect our broader community to rally behind a decision in mere weeks if we, as a board, do not have a baseline of consensus. In my view, votes of this magnitude should be unanimous or have an exceedingly good reason not to be.”

By emphasizing the need to have what PSD’s leadership says are financially optimal-sized schools of 400 or more students at the elementary level and 700 or more at the secondary level, those plans disproportionately impacted schools with the highest percentages of low-income and nonwhite students.

Four of the elementary schools that would have been closed under various scenarios are among the district’s top five in percentages of students receiving free or reduced lunch, a common indicator of the income level of a student’s family, students of color, according to Colorado Department of Education data. And three of them are among the district’s top four in percentages of non-English-speaking and English-as-a-second-language students.

“I didn’t seek this seat to close schools that house students of color and marginalized students,” board member Conor Duffy said. “We can do better than that. That doesn’t reflect my values, and it doesn’t reflect our community values.

“We’ve got to do better here.”

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PSD will keep scheduled June 4 listening sessions

Board members decided to still hold scheduled listening sessions June 4 online and at Rocky Mountain High School, 1300 W. Swallow Road, to gather community feedback to help guide the framework and process for any future discussions on closures, consolidations and boundary changes.

They said they will explore ways people who have already reserved spots for those sessions, which filled up within hours of becoming available , to cancel their reservations and open those slots up to others.

These PSD programs could be moved to new locations

The school board also voted unanimously to consider moving the district’s Transitions Pathways program for 18- to 21-year-olds with special needs and Poudre Community Academy, one of its two alternative high schools, to new locations within district facilities.

District leadership and staff at those schools were directed to work together to explore options before bringing specific proposals for those moves back to the Board of Education at a future meeting, school board President Kristen Draper said.

Should any of those programs move into a building already housing a school, they would operate as separate programs in a single facility and would not be consolidated, Draper said.

Those moves would be completed prior to the start of the 2025-26 school year, based on how the motions were worded. Kingsley suggested they consider delaying beyond that, if necessary, so that any necessary remodeling or construction would not need to take place while schools are in session.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 'We have heard you': PSD school board halts plans to close, consolidate schools