BVSD approved the plan 5–2 on Sept 22

A better plan starts with a transparent process.

We believe BVSD needs to address declining enrollment. We also believe irreversible decisions require a complete plan and the best available information.

BVSD has approved major changes to schools and communities across the district, and once carried out, they can't be undone. The plan doesn't hit the target it was built for: an unclear process, and barely a dent in savings or empty seats. An incomplete plan that fails its own goals all but guarantees more closures to come, and no one knows who is next. We oppose it, and we are asking BVSD for a stronger plan that serves all students.

Stay informed Why we oppose it

Parents file Open Meetings lawsuit against BVSD · Sept 30

Parents have taken the process to court.

On September 30, parents from the Douglass, Flatirons, and Mesa school communities filed a lawsuit under the Colorado Open Meetings Law. The suit alleges that key policy decisions behind the Resilient Schools plan were made without the public notice, observation, and participation the law requires. We support it.

What it asks, and what it doesn’t

No school is safe

This isn't just about the schools on today's closure list.

The plan BVSD approved is one stage of a much larger restructuring of the district. Decisions about additional schools, programs, boundaries, and feeder patterns remain unresolved. That means every BVSD community has a stake in getting the process right now.

33 district-run elementary and K-8 schools. 16 are in this plan.

By BVSD's own count: 6 schools closed, 4 buildings closed (Aug 25, 2026 presentation, slide 58). Four schools close outright; two more — Monarch and Eldorado — lose grade levels and a PK-8 community without the savings of closing a building.

What about the schools that aren't marked?

The district has said that further consolidations, middle schools, boundaries and programs are still to be decided. A school that isn't marked below hasn't been ruled out. It just hasn't come up yet.

The two partial closures end the PK-8 model at 2 of the district's 5 PK-8/K-8 schools — 40% of that option. At Monarch the PK-5 grades close and the building becomes a 6-8 school; at Eldorado the 6-8 grades close, leaving a K-5 school. The buildings stay open, but each PK-8 community is dissolved. (The district's other PK-8/K-8 schools are Aspen Creek, Horizons and Meadowlark.)

Set to close Grades closed (partial closure) Merged, moved, or receiving students Not in this plan
Alicia Sanchez Aspen Creek K-8 Bear Creek Birch BCSIS Coal Creek Columbine Community Montessori Creekside Crest View Douglass Eisenhower Eldorado PK-8 Emerald Escuela Bilingüe Pioneer Fireside Flatirons Foothill Gold Hill Heatherwood High Peaks Jamestown Kohl Lafayette Louisville Meadowlark PK-8 Mesa Monarch PK-8 Nederland Ryan Superior University Hill Whittier International

Three reasons we oppose the plan

The plan isn't finished, the math doesn't work, and the long-term picture just changed.

Reason 01

Step1of?

They voted on page one of a plan nobody has finished.

Middle schools, boundaries, dual-language and further consolidations are all still to come. Kids deserve to see the whole plan first.

Learn moreShow less

  • The proposal doesn't address every school in the district

    Further consolidations, middle schools, boundaries, dual-language programs and feeder patterns are all left for later. The vote decided this round without seeing the next.

  • Some students could be disrupted more than once

    Families moved under this proposal may face another major change when subsequent decisions are made.

  • The promised benefits aren't guaranteed

    BVSD has pointed to more sustainable class sizes, stronger staffing, and greater programming opportunities, but families have not been given concrete commitments about what students will actually experience.

  • Receiving schools need real plans

    Facilities. Transportation. Childcare. Staffing. Programming. SAC capacity. Traffic and arrival. These questions should have been answered before consolidation was approved. They still need answers.

  • Staff and communities matter

    Students shouldn't unnecessarily lose trusted teachers, paraeducators, peers, programs, and support systems along with their school building.

  • Equity must be considered throughout

    Repeated transitions, transportation changes, program changes, and loss of established support systems will not affect every student equally. The cumulative impacts on students and families should be understood before the plan is carried out.

Reason 02

1%of the district budget, at best

Closing four schools saves this. The building changes alone cost up to $10M.

Research on closures elsewhere finds the savings evaporate. Prove them, net of transition costs, and compare the alternatives first.

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  • The district's own numbers barely move

    BVSD projects $3.5 to $4 million a year in savings, under 1 percent of its budget, against up to $10 million in facility changes plus transition costs. Boulder's elementary buildings go from 63 percent full to 68 percent, and a third of seats stay empty.

  • Research says the savings evaporate

    A 2026 Stanford study of California closures found districts essentially broke even: spending and revenue each fell about $440 per student, districts lost about 287 students within five years of a closure, and staffing didn't shrink.

  • Boulder has been here before

    BVSD consolidated schools in 2000 and closed more in 2003, and has never told the public what it saved. Only about 120 of the 300 to 400 families expected to follow their assignment did. In 2014 the district asked voters for a $576 million bond, then the largest school bond in Colorado, to fix and expand its buildings.

  • Look next door

    Jeffco closed 16 elementary schools in 2022. This November it is asking voters for $133 million in tax increases.

  • Alternatives were never put on the table

    Shared-use buildings, focus programs placed in under-enrolled schools, boundary and open-enrollment reform, and trimming administrative growth should be modeled and compared before a single school closes.

  • Ask for the receipts

    The savings should be shown net of one-time costs, year by year, and the same analysis for each alternative.

Reason 03

BVSD: fewer kids
Boulder: more homes

The city just changed its long-term plan. BVSD hasn't rerun the math.

Closing a school is easy. Recreating public school capacity in Boulder decades from now is not.

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Boulder has just adopted a new long-term Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan that could significantly increase the amount of housing the city can accommodate.

That doesn't mean enrollment will suddenly increase. But it does mean we should make sure BVSD's assumptions about the next 10 to 20 years still make sense before permanently eliminating school capacity.

  • Boulder is planning for more housing

    The new Comprehensive Plan creates substantially greater potential housing capacity than the plan it replaces.

  • More housing changes the assumptions

    More homes don't automatically mean more BVSD students. But housing availability and affordability are among the factors affecting enrollment. BVSD should model multiple scenarios based on Boulder's newly adopted plans.

  • Use the newest information

    The City's long-range planning and BVSD's long-range planning should not happen in isolation.

  • Don't give up capacity we may need again

    Enrollment changes. Demographics change. Housing policy changes. Closing a school is easy compared with trying to recreate public school capacity in Boulder decades from now.

Hear from our communities

What's at stake isn't just a building.

Schools are communities of students, educators, families, neighbors, programs, traditions, and relationships.

Boulder · Set to close

Flatirons Elementary

Slated to close after the 2026–27 school year, with its attendance area split between Foothill and Whittier.

Visit saveflatirons.org → Boulder · Set to close

Douglass Elementary

Slated to close, with its attendance area divided among Coal Creek, Eisenhower and Heatherwood, and High Peaks moving into the building.

Visit savedouglass.com → Boulder · Set to close

Mesa Elementary

Slated to close and merge into Bear Creek Elementary at the Bear Creek site, with its AIM and RISE programs moving there too.

Visit savemesaelementary.org → Broomfield · Set to close

Birch Elementary

Slated to close, even though Broomfield has the district's smallest enrollment decline. Closing Birch would push Broomfield's remaining schools to 101 percent of capacity.

Visit birchbarksback.com → Boulder · At risk

Uni Hill Elementary

At risk of closure, consolidation or relocation, despite being BVSD's flagship dual-language program. Its community is advocating for Spanish-speaking families and the Uni Hill neighborhood.

What Uni Hill families are asking for → Louisville · PK–5 to close

Monarch PK-8

PK-5 slated to close with students divided between Fireside, Superior, and Eldorado and $3-3.5M spent to reconfigure the building into a middle school only.

The impacts on Monarch families →
How this coalition relates to each school's campaign

Different schools may have different concerns and preferred solutions. Better Plan BVSD does not replace those individual advocacy efforts. We are united around one shared request: don't carry out irreversible decisions until the broader plan is complete.

Elected leaders push back

Elected leaders in three cities and at the Capitol have asked BVSD for more time.

City Council · Sept 15

Lafayette

The plan counts Lafayette's children at Douglass and left Lafayette out of the study. The council agreed without a single objection to write to BVSD, and sent the letter on Sept 19.

“It does seem to me it's very clear there was a process foul here.”

The discussion and the letter → City Council · Sept 17

Boulder

Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer read the council the letter she was sending BVSD. Council member Taishya Adams said she would write too.

“Please listen to the parents who love their neighborhood schools and pause this decision.”

Watch Winer read her letter → City Council · Sept 19

Broomfield

Broomfield City Council members asked BVSD to show Birch families the data and the model behind the recommendation before an irreversible decision.

“Our request is for time.”

Read their letter → Colorado House · Sept 21

Our state rep

Rep. Junie Joseph met about fifty constituents about the closures and carried three themes to BVSD, including the communities that felt left out of engagement.

“Pausing long enough to hear directly from these community members.”

Read her letter →

This isn't about stopping change

It's about getting the plan right.

We recognize BVSD has a real enrollment challenge. We support making difficult decisions when they are necessary to create stronger, more sustainable schools. But these decisions will shape BVSD for decades. Before carrying them out, BVSD should:

  • Complete the districtwide plan
  • Incorporate Boulder's new long-term growth strategy
  • Protect students from repeated disruption
  • Define the educational improvements consolidation will deliver
  • Ensure receiving schools have the resources they need
  • Understand and address inequitable impacts
  • Prove the savings, net of transition costs, and compare the alternatives
  • Preserve flexibility for an uncertain future

No school is safe

This plan affects some schools directly. The next decisions could affect yours.

The time to demand a complete, transparent, districtwide plan is before the next irreversible decision.

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What BVSD decides next, and what it means for your school. We write when something happens.

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Our coalition

Families. Educators. Neighbors. Businesses. Community organizations.

Participating school communities

Flatirons Elementary Douglass Elementary Mesa Elementary Birch Elementary Uni Hill Elementary Monarch PK-8 Your school next

Thousands of Boulder Valley families are already organizing, school by school.

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The ask is simple

Finish the Plan. Get It Right.

We can address declining enrollment without rushing irreversible decisions. Let's build a plan that works for all BVSD students, today and for the Boulder Valley we're planning for tomorrow. Real resilience is giving kids a structure they can build a future around.

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Forward this to one neighbor who hasn't heard. That's worth more than anything else you can do in the next minute.