BVSD school board hears declining enrollment guideline recommendations

May 16—The Boulder Valley school board on Tuesday discussed a recommendation for guidelines the district can use as it grapples with shrinking enrollment in elementary schools and the possible need for future school closures or consolidations.

With enrollment projected to continue to decline, the 29-person Long Range Advisory Committee was tasked with developing metrics to use in making decisions. The committee, which includes a mix of staff and community members, started by focusing on elementary schools and plans to look at secondary schools next school year.

When elementary schools drop below three classes per grade level, it causes staffing and scheduling challenges that create a less-comprehensive experience, district officials said. Smaller schools also cost more to operate, straining the district's budget.

Superintendent Rob Anderson said the goal is to start having community conversations now about low-enrollment schools, when the district isn't in a crisis that requires quick decisions.

"We can't pretend this isn't happening," he said.

The district currently has five elementary schools with fewer than two classes per grade level. That number is expected to double to 10 elementary schools by the 2025-26 school year and grow to 12 elementary schools by 2027-28.

The committee suggested an annual school board update, starting in February, that would detail what percent of each elementary school is being used, the number of classes per grade level and the school's five-year enrollment projections.

"What we are giving the board is an early warning system," said committee co-chairperson Jeff Anderson.

The recommendations include a two-tier process.

An elementary school with fewer than two classes per grade and enrollment below 60% of capacity first would be designated as a small school and wouldn't receive extra resources. The school could be required to use multiage classrooms to meet the funding formula the district uses to assign staff. Library, counseling, physical education, music and art staff members also could be limited to part-time positions.

Second, a community engagement process would be triggered if the school's enrollment continued to decline below 50% capacity, the school had fewer than 1.5 classes per grade level and the school was projected to continue at that level for at least five years.

Outcomes following the engagement process could include continuing to operate under a "small school" status, adding specialized programming to attract students, changing open enrollment preferences or boundaries, and school closure or consolidation.

The guiding principles of any decisions, according to the committee, should be equity and access, including giving consideration to historically underserved populations.

Also recommended is that data should play a significant role in decision-making, communities should be supported through any transitions, municipalities should be included in the conversation, and the building's condition should be considered.

Not included in the recommendations are the district's small mountain elementary schools — Gold Hill, Jamestown and Nederland — which the committee suggested treating differently given their geographic challenges.

While Boulder Valley's enrollment had been slowly declining, it was accelerated by the pandemic and is expected to continue to drop. The district is projecting K-12 enrollment to go from the current 27,489 students to 25,365 students over the next five years.

Fewer students overall means the district will receive less per-pupil revenue from the state, while needing to spend more money to maintain an increasing number of smaller schools. The fixed costs of running a small school are distributed among fewer students, diverting funding from other student and district needs.

"As the number of small schools increases, the proportion of the general fund allocated to subsidize those schools grows," Chief Financial Officer Bill Sutter said.

According to district data, it costs $6,700 per student to operate an elementary school with three classes per grade level. A school with one class per grade level costs about $2,500 more per student, or about $9,200.

A final recommendation from the Long Range Advisory Committee is expected to come back to the school board as an information item at its June 13 meeting.