Board votes to end Long-Range Planning Process
During a special meeting on May 20, the PSD Board of Education voted unanimously to end the current Long Range Planning process. With this vote, the work of the Facilities Planning Steering Committee has also ended and there will be no school closures or consolidations for the 2025-26 school year.
Next steps
- Transition Pathways/Programs and Poudre Community Academy: The board has asked staff to determine the feasibility of finding another space to house Transitions Pathways/Programs and Poudre Community Academy (PCA) starting in 2025-26. Staff will bring recommendations as to where these programs might be housed to a Board of Education meeting this fall.
- June 11 Report to the Board of Education: Transition Programs, PCA and Timnath Boundaries/Bamford Feeder Update
Together, we'll work to do what's best for kids
Our students have more diverse needs than ever, and we are preparing to support them with fewer resources. Declining birth rates and declining student enrollment are having negative impacts in Poudre School District and on school districts across the state of Colorado and the nation. Demographers project an enrollment decrease of about 10% in PSD in the next several years, which equates to a recurring reduction of roughly $40 million to the district’s annual budget (10% of a roughly $400 million total budget). Said another way, this is equal to about 404 full-time positions.
With mounting facility maintenance and improvement needs and a need for new facilities to support the continuing growth in some areas of our district – such as the towns of Timnath and Wellington – collectively nearing an estimated $1 billion in cost, the PSD Board of Education will need to decide whether to ask voters to support a ballot measure.
What are the issues?
- Birth rates have been declining.
- Student enrollment has been decreasing.
- Colorado has one of the lowest funding rates for schools in the nation.
As a result, PSD faces significant cuts to programming and services and must make changes to educational programs, possibly consolidate schools, and change boundaries. Changes would go into effect no sooner than the 2025-26 school year.
We'll engage with our community to look for solutions
In PSD, we exist for our students. We believe in the transformative power of public education to positively impact students’ lives and prepare them to be successful in a changing world. One of the things that our students learn is how to solve real-world problems and adjust as things evolve. We are practicing what we teach and working with our community to address the very real challenges that are affecting our larger community today and for years to come. Navigating change isn’t easy, but we do so better when we do it together.
The difficult but necessary steps we take today keep us aligned with our values of ensuring that students and their families have high-quality educational choices in PSD; growing the programs that are in high demand; and continuing to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and community assets like our facilities. Inaction puts the long-term sustainability of our entire school district at risk in the future.
Roles in the first Long-Range Planning process
- Facilities Planning Steering Committee: Leads this work
- Evaluated data and information and engaged the community to develop two to three scenarios for change to address the challenges the district faces
- Guided by Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment, an outside facilitator hired by PSD
- The committee's role/work ended with the board's May 20 vote to end the current Long-Range Planning Process.
- PSD Staff and Superintendent: By invitation only
- Supported the work of the Facilities Planning Steering Committee by providing information and resources to the committee
- Board of Education: Decision maker
- Listened to and provided feedback on the recommendation of the Facilities Planning Steering Committee
- Votes and approves any changes to be implemented
- Community: All members of the community were invited to participate in the process by sharing ideas, concerns, and other feedback in listening sessions and questionnaires. Reports on community engagement opportunities and feedback received during the process are available on the Listening Sessions and Community Engagement web page.
Learn more - "Understanding PSD" video series: