Our community will be engaging in many incredibly important conversations over the next 60 days. In the middle of a highly combative election season, our community will also be contemplating changes to Poudre School District (PSD).
The long-term economic viability of the Fort Collins Area is tied directly to the success of our educational system and I invite you to stay well-informed about the decisions ahead. Thoughtful conversations about how we affect positive change will be vital and I am happy to have PSD Superintendent Brian Kingsley share early insights with you here!
Guest Perspective
Brian Kingsley, Superintendent, Poudre School District
Every employer in Northern Colorado knows the question that comes up when a job candidate or a business is weighing a move here: What are the schools like? It’s a fair question, and it tells us something important. Our schools and our economy are recruiting the same families and are inextricably linked. When one of us succeeds, the other benefits.
That’s why I want to be direct with you about a challenge Poudre School District is facing, and why it matters to every business in this region.
PSD has about 10,000 empty seats, and fewer children arrive in kindergarten classrooms each school year. This is not a story of families choosing to go elsewhere. Nine in ten school-age children who live within our boundaries attend a PSD school or a PSD charter school. But, fewer than one in four households here have school-age children, fewer families are having children in Colorado and nationwide, and the number of families moving into our region has slowed. Districts across Colorado and the country are seeing the same pattern, and the data tells us it won’t reverse on its own. The decline we are experiencing is demographic, persistent, and it must be addressed.
When enrollment declines but the number of school buildings stays the same, students feel it, teachers feel it, and the overall health of our organization suffers. Part of the reason for this is that school funding is directly tied to the number of students in attendance. For example, if a family with three children moves away from Northern Colorado and their elementary school’s enrollment and funding declines, the principal must make difficult decisions. Do they keep three classes per grade level or do they move to two? Moving to two means larger class sizes and employing one less teacher. Do they reduce the amount of art, music, and physical education offered to all students in the building? Doing so means a less robust experience for every child. Said simply, when we are spread across more school buildings than we need, our resources cannot reach students the way they should and their educational experience is diminished.
These are just two of the many reasons that our Board of Education is voting on school closure as part of our Comprehensive Planning work at its October 27 meeting. Our mission is to educate every child, every day. It would be irresponsible not to address the challenge we know we face for those most impacted by it.
I won’t pretend this is easy. Closing a school affects families, teachers and other staff, and neighborhoods that have built their lives around it, and I feel that weight. Our approach to comprehensive planning and this difficult decision has been slow and deliberate. We have studied this challenge from all angles over the last seventeen months, looking at myriad alternative approaches to remedy it, and have determined that school closure is the only way to effectively address it. We’ve gathered feedback from every school community in PSD, all 49 of our traditional public schools. We’ve surveyed families and staff, receiving more than 7,500 responses, and we’ve held almost two dozen open community engagement sessions so we could hear the voices of those who are most impacted by this change. All of these voices have shaped our direction. Making changes now does not mean we are not listening or that we do not value community feedback. We are listening and we care deeply about the experiences of every member of our community. However, maintaining the status quo is simply not an option.
We know that not every individual in our community will be aligned with the changes that are brought forward. But I want to emphasize what this work is for: it is about making sure every student, in every part of our district, has access to the programs, teachers, and support that prepare them for what comes next.
Strong schools are the ones employers point to when they recruit, and the ones that grow Northern Colorado’s next generation of workers, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders.
This is where we can continue to partner in support of our entire community. Schools alone cannot reverse enrollment decline. The families who fill our classrooms in the years ahead will come here because there is good work here. Every job you create and every employee you bring to Northern Colorado is part of how our schools stay strong, and every strong school is part of how you make that recruiting pitch.
With that said, we need your help. First, stay informed. Our enrollment data and the criteria guiding these decisions are available at https://www.psdschools.org/comprehensive-planning-in-psd. Second, when you recruit, tell candidates about our excellent schools. PSD continues to outpace the state and nation in almost every measure of student performance. Third, partner with us through internships, mentoring, and career pathways that connect our students to the opportunities that exist right here.
The decisions ahead are difficult, and we are making them carefully, with our community’s input. My commitment remains the same: every child who walks into a PSD school deserves an education that helps them become who they hope to be. When we get that right, all of Northern Colorado is stronger for it.
With appreciation,
Brian Kingsley
Superintendent, Poudre School District