Boulder Valley is recruiting committee members to study enrollment patterns and help the school district grapple with shrinking school enrollment in future years.
The new Long Range Advisory Committee, which will be run by an outside facilitator, is expected to review enrollment trends, program offerings and building capacity as it meets during the next school year.
Along with looking at enrollment, the committee will be asked to review the district’s expanding program offerings — from career and technical education classes to bilingual programs — and look for cost-effective ways to provide them with space. Another task is ensuring an equitable distribution of programs.
The district is looking for up to 30 people to serve as members, with representation from district leadership, school principals, parents, district committees, employee associations and students. The district also wants two members representing each community: Mountains, Boulder, Louisville, Superior, Lafayette, Erie and Broomfield.
Applications are due July 29 and are available at tinyurl.com/y2xse2be. District staff members will review the applications and present candidates to the school board for approval. Once members are chosen, the group is expected to meet monthly, starting in September, and provide recommendations to the school board in April 2023.
Assistant Superintendent Rob Price, who is leading the committee, emphasized the group won’t be asked to make specific recommendations around closing lower enrollment schools.
Instead, he said, the district is looking for feedback on metrics, tools and options the district should consider as it makes decisions over the next five years.
“It’s really looking for feedback,” he said. “We’re not walking in with a solution already in mind.”
Senior Planner Glen Segrue added the reasons enrollment is declining varies by school. Some are losing students to other schools through open enrollment, while others are in neighborhoods with few kids as younger families are priced out. Several of the district’s older schools also were built to hold fewer students.
And in a few pockets of the district, including Erie, enrollment is increasing.
“It is so complex,” Segrue said.
The school board agreed in April to create the committee as the district seeks to “unravel the huge knot” of issues that have led to under enrolled schools. Open enrollment, the area’s lack of affordable housing and regional enrollment differences have complicated the issue, district officials said.
The district’s expected gradual decline in enrollment was dramatically accelerated by COVID-19 related enrollment losses — and declining enrollment leads to budget reductions, inefficient facility operations and a less comprehensive experience at smaller schools, district leaders said.
Overall, the district’s enrollment dipped by about 1% last school year, despite a small boost at the elementary level that followed the large pandemic decline. Generally, declining enrollment has been concentrated at the elementary level, though middle schools are starting to see fewer students.
Elementary enrollment began declining in the district in 2016. About 13,000 elementary students were enrolled in 2016, compared to 11,321 last fall. The biggest declines have come in kindergarten.
At the school level, 11 elementary schools have flat to steady enrollment, while 19 are seeing their enrollment drop. As those smaller elementary classes move into middle and high schools, Boulder Valley’s overall enrollment is expected to continue declining, from about 28,000 students last school year to about 27,000 students by 2026-27.
Each 1% drop in enrollment, or about 300 students, equals about a $3 million loss in state funding — though the state averages declining enrollment numbers, softening the impact. Each 1% drop in enrollment also equals 12 fewer classroom teachers.
District officials have said the “sweet spot” for elementary schools is about 450 students, enough to support three classes at each grade level and provide a comprehensive school experience. The majority of the district’s elementary schools now have two classes at most grade levels. A few only have one for most grades.
Based on the state’s official enrollment count in October, six of the district’s neighborhood elementary schools enroll fewer than 300 students.
Three are in Boulder: Flatirons enrolls 182 students, Heatherwood enrolls 253 and Mesa enrolls 247. The other three are in the mountains: Nederland Elementary enrolls 199 students, Gold Hill enrolls 17 and Jamestown enrolls 20.
For more information about the committee, contact Price at rob.price@bvsd.org.
