After careful consideration of feedback received primarily through eight listening sessions and a questionnaire, members of PSD’s Facilities Planning Steering Committee have updated four scenarios for potential boundary modifications and school consolidations.
The committee presented the board with scenarios labeled A1, A2, B, and C in March. These scenarios have been revised and are now labeled D1, D2, E, and F. Details of these scenarios are included below. The Board of Education may adopt aspects of the scenarios presented.
As with the previous scenarios, any changes adopted by the PSD Board of Education will not take effect until the 2025-26 school year. None of these scenarios are final, and the school board will not vote on the committee’s recommendations until June 11.
Process and Background
Countless hours of research, debate, critical thinking, and tough decision-making went into creating the scenarios above. This is not an easy process nor an easy problem to solve. Every school in PSD has a devoted community of students, staff, families and community members who love their school just the way it is.
However, our community is changing. Because school districts are funded on a per pupil basis, declining enrollment can lead to budget reductions, inefficient facility operations, and a less comprehensive educational experience for students at small schools.
It is a fact that enrollment in our district has been declining. Schools operating significantly below their enrollment capacity rely on extra funding from the district to continue to operate at a basic level. Even then, they must make tough choices about which classes, supports, and activities to offer a smaller number of students.
As enrollment-dependent funding from the state wanes, providing this extra funding to under-capacity schools will become more difficult, if not impossible. The programming and staffing levels that make our schools so beloved will become harder to provide. This is not theoretical – millions of dollars in cuts to building funds and central administration are already coming in 2024-25.
Thank you for your interest and patience as we go through this process together. After reviewing the scenarios below, please share your feedback in this questionnaire, open through May 19.
Revised Scenarios
Changes included in every scenario
- Close Beattie Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Beattie’s attendance area to Lopez and Bennett elementary schools.
- Close Blevins Middle School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Blevins’ attendance area to Lincoln and Webber middle schools.
- Close Johnson Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Johnson’s attendance area to Olander and McGraw elementary schools.
- Balance enrollment among schools east of Interstate 25 by shifting boundaries between Timnath, Bethke, and Bamford elementary schools.
Scenario D1
- Close Beattie Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Beattie’s attendance area to Lopez and Bennett elementary schools.
- Close Blevins Middle School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Blevins’ attendance area to Lincoln and Webber middle schools.
- Close Cache La Poudre Elementary School and reassign students to Irish, Putnam, and Tavelli elementary schools.
- Close Cache La Poudre Middle School and reassign students to Lincoln Middle School.
- Close Johnson Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Johnson’s attendance area to Olander and McGraw elementary schools.
- Close Linton Elementary School and reassign students primarily to Kruse Elementary School. Boundaries for Bacon, Kruse, Werner, and Zach would be adjusted to accommodate this shift.
- Keep Irish and Putnam elementary schools’ boundaries the same, but students in kindergarten through second grade could attend either school and have busing to either school. Any new students in grades 3-5 in either attendance boundary would be assigned to Putnam.
- Irish would be promoted as a dual language school with guaranteed busing for Spanish-speaking students, who could enroll at Irish year-round.
- Putnam would become a Core Knowledge school.
- Adjust boundaries so Bamford Elementary students would attend Preston Middle School and Fossil Ridge High School for grades 6-12 instead of Timnath Middle-High School.
- Balance enrollment among schools east of Interstate 25 by shifting boundaries between Timnath, Bethke, and Bamford elementary schools.
Scenario D2
- Close Beattie Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Beattie’s attendance area to Lopez and Bennett elementary schools.
- Close Blevins Middle School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Blevins’ attendance area to Lincoln and Webber middle schools.
- Close Boltz Middle School and reassign most students to Preston Middle School, with some parts of the attendance area being absorbed by Lesher Middle School. The dual language program at Boltz would move to Lincoln Middle School.
- Close Johnson Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Johnson’s attendance area to Olander and McGraw elementary schools.
- Close Linton Elementary School and reassign students primarily to Kruse Elementary School. Boundaries for Bacon, Kruse, Werner, and Zach would be adjusted to accommodate this shift.
- Relocate Polaris into the vacated Johnson Elementary building (see Johnson above).
- Relocate Irish to the vacated Polaris building (formerly the Moore Elementary School building). Irish would continue to have a dual immersion model in its new location but would become a 100% choice school with no neighborhood attendance boundaries. The Irish attendance boundary area would be absorbed by Cache La Poudre and Putnam elementary schools, with adjustments to the boundaries for Dunn and Tavelli.
- Adjust boundaries so Bamford Elementary students would attend Preston Middle School and Fossil Ridge High School for grades 6-12 instead of Timnath Middle-High School.
- Balance enrollment among schools east of Interstate 25 by shifting boundaries between Timnath, Bethke, and Bamford elementary schools.
Scenario E
- Consolidate Harris and Linton elementary schools into a three-track dual immersion school to be located at the Linton elementary building. Linton would retain some of its current neighborhood attendance area. Current Harris students could choice into Linton or Irish.
- Close Preston Middle School and change Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School from a 100% choice school to a neighborhood school.
- Bacon, Bamford, and Zach students would attend Kinard for middle school. Students from other elementary schools in Preston’s current attendance boundaries would go to Boltz for middle school.
- Bethke and Timnath Elementary students would continue to attend Timnath Middle-High School for middle and high school.
- Relocate Polaris into the vacated Johnson Elementary building (see Johnson below).
- Relocate Irish to the vacated Polaris building (formerly the Moore Elementary School building). Irish would continue to have a dual immersion model in its new location but would become a 100% choice school with no neighborhood attendance boundaries. The Irish attendance boundary area would be absorbed by Cache La Poudre and Putnam elementary schools, with adjustments to the boundaries for Dunn and Tavelli.
- Close Beattie Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Beattie’s attendance area to Lopez and Bennett elementary schools.
- Close Blevins Middle School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Blevins’ attendance area to Lincoln and Webber middle schools.
- Close Johnson Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Johnson’s attendance area to Olander and McGraw elementary schools.
- Balance enrollment among schools east of Interstate 25 by shifting boundaries between Timnath, Bethke, and Bamford elementary schools.
Scenario F
- Close Beattie Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Beattie’s attendance area to Lopez and Bennett elementary schools.
- Close Blevins Middle School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Blevins’ attendance area to Lincoln and Webber middle schools.
- Close Johnson Elementary School and adjust boundaries to send students currently in Johnson’s attendance area to Olander and McGraw elementary schools.
- Close Linton Elementary School and reassign students primarily to Kruse Elementary School. Boundaries for Bacon, Kruse, Werner, and Zach would be adjusted to accommodate this shift.
- Close Putnam Elementary School and reassign students to Dunn, Irish, Tavelli, and Cache La Poudre Elementary School. Students in kindergarten through second grade in the expanded Irish attendance area could choose between Irish and CLPE and receive busing to either school. New students in grades 3-5 in the expanded Irish attendance area would be automatically assigned to CLPE.
- Make Timnath Middle-High School a high school only and reassign middle school students in TMHS boundaries to Preston Middle School.
- Balance enrollment among schools east of Interstate 25 by shifting boundaries between Timnath, Bethke, and Bamford elementary schools.
Feedback and Next Steps
- To provide feedback on the proposed scenarios, please complete this questionnaire.
- Changes are still possible before a recommendation is shared with the school board on May 28.
- The Board of Education will host a listening session on June 4 and is expected to vote on recommendations on June 11.
Again, everyone in our PSD community is encouraged to complete the questionnaire to offer their feedback before any final decisions are made. For more information about the process, data and to see all updates, visit the Long-Range Planning web section.