To keep our community informed about long-range planning efforts, we send an update after each meeting of and presentation by the PSD Facilities Planning Steering Committee to the school board.
You can find all committee updates and additional communications on the Long-Range Planning web section. To translate the update into a language other than English, scroll to the top of the web page, click on “Translate / Traducción / 번역 / 翻译 / ترجمة,” and select a language.
Key Takeaways
- Clear, reliable data: Among the many data points the committee is using in its work are school capacities and percent utilizations. In other words, how many students can a building hold, and what percentage is currently filled? This information helps inform where students could be moved to use the space within a building efficiently and maximize the value of specials, integrated services, school support staff, extracurriculars, and other important programs.
- FLO Analytics, an outside GIS firm, established an initial, districtwide standard for these measurements. PSD’s architect assessed all educational spaces within PSD schools and refined the data, so it is as specific as possible and supports the committee in making informed recommendations.
- For more information, visit the Data and Reports web page. >>
- Refining possible options: It’s important to have a shared understanding of language, and “possible option,” as it’s used in the context of this work, means a combination of boundary modifications, school consolidations, and educational program changes.
- The committee continues to discuss and refine the possible options that will be presented to the community for feedback later this month. The committee initially generated many singular items for consideration, which were then grouped into possible options.
- Staff presented estimated financial impacts of the possible options.
- The committee has developed equity guidelines and is committed to minimizing negative impacts to marginalized students.
- Community to review possible options at listening sessions: The listening sessions will follow the same format, which includes a presentation, small-table conversations, and a questionnaire. They will not be shared publicly, in part or whole, before then.
- There will also be a chance for community members to watch a video presentation and submit feedback through an online questionnaire, for those unable to attend a listening session.
Please note that changes have been made to the schedule of listening sessions:
The committee will present possible options publicly for the first time at the March 19 PSD Board of Education meeting, which is open to the public. There is limited seating, so we strongly encourage people to tune into the livestream on YouTube. - 7:30-8:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 20 at Timnath Middle-High School
- 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, March 20 at Fort Collins High School
- 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Monday, March 25 at ITC Aspen 1 and 2 at the PSD Support Services Complex
- 6-8 p.m. Monday, March 25 at Rocky Mountain High School
- 6-7 p.m. Wednesday, March 27 Online
- 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28 at Lincoln Middle School
- 6-8 p.m. Thursday, April 4 at PSD Future Ready Center (for those who speak Spanish)
- TBD, session for those who speak Arabic
- The PSD Board of Education will host its own feedback sessions from 5:30-10 p.m. April 16 and June 4.
- Visit the Listening Sessions and Community Engagement web page here.>>
- There will also be a chance for community members to watch a video presentation and submit feedback through an online questionnaire, for those unable to attend a listening session.
- Assessing possible options: The committee plans to use this rubric to assess the possible scenarios that it develops.
- The rubric is aligned with the guiding principles from the PSD Board of Education.
- The committee's charge is to put together two to three recommendations, and its members have expressed a desire to have scenarios align with the rubric criteria as closely as possible.
- However, our community should be prepared that not all scenarios will meet all criteria, as there are many competing interests the committee is charged with considering. The committee believes it is important to present a wide range of options to the community to gather as much feedback as possible before finalizing its recommendations.
- School board vote coming in June: The Board of Education is scheduled to vote in June 2024 about how to proceed, after considering the committee’s 2-3 recommendations of possible options.
- The school board has recently scheduled two additional listening sessions from 5:30-10 p.m. April 16 and June 4 to garner more input before making its decision. Dates, times and locations are on the listening sessions web page. Board directors will attend to hear directly from community members.
Understanding PSD
This video series is designed to help our community to learn more about the district’s long-range planning process, the district budget, and more, as our community grapples with declining student enrollment. The first two episodes were released in previous editions of the PSD Now community newsletter, and we thought it was potentially helpful to share them again here.
EPISODE 3 | Unpacking optimal enrollment: Where the target student enrollment totals of 400 and 700 for elementary and middle schools come from.
Learn about student enrollment trends and why PSD doesn’t get more money when property taxes go up in episode 1 and episode 2.