Facilities Planning Steering Committee

Criteria and Equity Guidelines

The Facilities Planning Steering Committee has identified the criteria and equity guidelines included in this document to guide their work in developing and evaluating scenarios for change.

Rubric to assess possible scenarios

The committee plans to use this rubric to assess the possible scenarios that it develops. The rubric is aligned with the guiding principles from the PSD Board of Education. The charge of the committee is to put together two to three recommendations, and its members have expressed a desire to have scenarios align with the rubric criteria as closely as possible. However, our community should be prepared that not all scenarios will meet all criteria, as there are many competing interests the committee is charged with considering.

Guiding principals from the Board of Education

• Board Resolution for Guiding Principles

During a Long-Range Planning discussion in January, the Board of Education established these principles to frame the committee’s work, as it develops recommendations:  

• Start discussion about consolidation with school buildings that have building utilization around 60-70%.  
• Aim for enrollment optimization to minimize the budget size factor. On average, that is about 400 students in an elementary school and 700 students in a middle school, with an average class size of 25. These enrollment totals do not fit all schools or programs.  
• Maximize access for all students to schools and academic programs. Consider physical access and proximity to other schools, geographic location, ADA, and curricular demand.  
• Maximize program continuity K-12 in terms of school location and at each level. 
• Consider data about current and previous school waitlists and be curious about why those waitlists exist. Keep in mind, the reasons a family chooses a school are vast and varied. Consider whether there is potential for program expansion. 
• Consider all creative grade configurations (i.e. K-6, K-8 or other school models) to address program demand, create greater building efficiency, and address growing enrollment on the east side of the district. 
• Using data from the McKinstry studies, PSD, and other sources, consider all aspects and costs associated with continued use of current district facilities (i.e. efficiency score, ADA compliance, overall condition, operations and maintenance needs, cost to install air conditioning, early childhood, flexibility of space inside building).  
• Consider how existing schools, particularly on the west side of the district, can be used in a way that increases their building utilization.  
• Consider how boundary modifications could address growing enrollment on the east side of the district, now and in the next five years in lieu of constructing new facilities, which takes time and requires passage of a ballot measure. Ballot measures are outside the scope of this committee. 

The district has hired the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University (IBE) to facilitate the Facilities Planning Steering Committee. The organization structures, guides, and facilitates collaborative processes that focus on place-based sustainability, climate transitions, and equity.  

Through a competitive process, PSD contracted services from the Institute for the Built Environment because it is an external, third-party organization with the capacity to facilitate engagement for significant community issues and projects. Staff also felt there was a benefit in working with a local organization that has context around the uniqueness of our communities – within PSD and Northern Colorado.  

Learn more about the IBE on the organization’s website. 

• PSD  is facing a decline in student enrollment. PSD has 256 fewer students in the current school year than it did in the previous year. This is a decades-long trend and is estimated to continue. Our enrollment may decline by as much as 10% over the next several years. 

• Like other school districts, our budgets are primarily based on the number of students who attend our schools. With 10% fewer students, the district will lose 10% of its overall funding. This translates to a $40 million deficit over five years, or about $8 million each year. School consolidations can play an important role in addressing the projected annual budget shortfall. 

• Running smaller and smaller schools with less and less funding means that schools will not be able to provide the same services and supports for students. This could mean that schools no longer have full-time specials teachers (i.e. art, music, physical education, etc.), counselors and other positions. Other aspects of district operations may also be altered including, for example, bussing, athletics, extracurricular activities, and more. 

• By consolidating schools, we can make our schools more efficient and minimize the number of staff and budget dollars that must be cut as a result of declining student enrollment. It’s also important to remember that keeping buildings and repurposing them for uses other than educating students still saves money.

Empty seats are due to a combination of factors, but are primarily due to people having fewer children (declining birth rates). The trend of having fewer children has been happening for decades across Colorado and the nation. 
Additional information is available on the Long-Range Planning web section of the PSD website, which has content including this presentation by the state demographer: https://youtu.be/3jYStzBkN9s

• Despite population growth in our communities, there are about 2,000 fewer students enrolled in PSD now than there were in the past. At its peak, PSD's enrollment exceeded 30,000 students.

• The population growth in our community is also largely occurring in older age demographics, not among school-aged children. 

• Communities across the district are growing at different rates. We are seeing more families with school-aged children moving to Timnath and Wellington, and fewer families with school-aged children on the west side of Fort Collins. Some areas may require new schools while others will have to consolidate. 
   

• Schools that are operating at low capacity are less able to serve student needs because they are not able to sustainably provide resources like full-time specials teachers, counselors, among other positions. By optimizing enrollment in schools across the district, we can reduce the district’s financial burden while providing more comprehensive services and supports to students that result in better educational outcomes. 

• Based on the work of principals and district finance staff a couple years ago, the optimal student enrollment of an elementary school is a minimum of 400, and the optimal middle school enrollment is a minimum of 700. 

• Emptied buildings can be repurposed for beneficial uses including earthly childhood centers, better facilities for existing alternative and Integrated Services support, and staff training facilities, among other possible uses. 

• As enrollment continues to decline in our schools, school and central budgets are being reduced. This means that the number of staff across PSD are also being reduced.

• The district has also more aggressively pursued grant funding in recent years, bringing in millions of additional dollars over the years. The challenge with grant dollars, however, is that they eventually need to be replaced or phased out.

• For additional information on PSD’s budget, visit the PSD Finance & Budget web section. 

If schools are not consolidated, PSD would need to continue reducing staff, including teachers, and support staff. Cost savings to reduce the number of staff reductions are made most possible through consolidations. 
 

• The School Board will vote on changes proposed by the steering committee in June 2024. 
• Changes will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year. 

There are 37 members on the committee, including 14 parents/guardians, 18 PSD staff, two community-at-large members, and three representatives from employee associations. 

Committee members represent: 

• Alternative and Expeditionary Learning programs (Polaris, PCA, Centennial) and Transitions Pathways (Integrated Services, which supports PSD students with disabilities) 
• Fort Collins High School feeder schools 
• Fossil Ridge High School feeder schools  
• Rocky Mountain High School feeder schools  
• Poudre High School feeder schools 
• PSD Central Office  
• Timnath feeder schools 
• Wellington feeder schools 
• Community members without students in PSD schools 

Members are listed by: name, role/representation (feeder, if applicable). 

NOTE: Four seats were unfilled due to lack of applications (3 classified, 1 licensed). 

• An application was sent to the entire PSD community in December 2023, and 76 applications were received in the first round.  
• Applications for all available seats were not received in the first round. To ensure the greatest representation possible, PSD put out an additional call for applications. Thirty-one applications were received in the second round.  
• Applications were reviewed and scored with a rubric by PSD staff and a representative from Colorado State University’s Institute for the Built Environment (the external facilitator working with the PSD Facilities Planning Steering Committee).

• The committee is charged with developing 2-3 viable scenarios, with community input, that include districtwide options for school consolidations, boundary revisions, and educational program placement.  
• The Board of Education offered a set of Guiding Principles to orient the committee’s work. 
• The committee was provided with extensive data and information and was charged with developing scenarios. District staff and consultants have been providing support, data, and analysis to the committee as they complete their work. All data is available on the PSD LRP Data and Reports web page.  
   

• The committee met for two full days in early February to learn about enrollment issues and begin to strategize around possible solutions. 
• Committee members submitted initial ideas to FLO Analytics, an outside GIS firm, that specializes in school district modeling for consolidation and boundary revisions. 
• FLO presented modeling results to the committee. Members used this information to generate a second and third round of scenarios, which were then modeled. 
• The committee has met multiple times since February and will continue to do so throughout spring 2024.
• The committee will use a rubric to assess the possible scenarios that it develops. The rubric is aligned with the guiding principles from the PSD Board of Education. Information about the guiding principles and rubric is available higher up on this web page. 

• Draft scenarios, also called possible options, are being presented to the entire PSD community (students, parents, teachers, administrators, staff, and the Board of Education) through a series of online and in-person presentations and listening sessions. An online questionnaire will be used to help gather community input, particularly for those unable to attend an in-person listening session. 
• The steering committee will use community input to refine or revise scenarios and to develop recommendations that will be shared with the Board of Education on May 28, 2024.  

• The district is committed to prioritizing equitable engagement and outcomes for at-risk and marginalized students. 
• The steering committee created Equity Guidelines as part of their work by reviewing articles and best practices from other school districts facing school consolidations.  
• The committee has actively considered data on demographics, including household income, race and ethnicity, language, housing status, and special education needs. 
   

• The steering committee has been working with staff from the Language, Culture & Equity Department to ensure that the outreach process is equitable. 
• Interpretation services are available at all listening sessions, with one listening session being conducted in Spanish and another in Arabic. 
• At the request of the committee, three new engagement opportunities have been added: an online listening session to improve accessibility, plus two sessions where community members can share their thoughts directly with the Board of Education. 
   

• It is possible that some alternative programs will be asked to relocate to a new space, share their space with other programs, or consolidate with other programs. 
• The committee recognizes that alternative programs serve some of our most marginalized and at-risk students, so it is crucial to optimize the facilities and resources available for these programs. 
   

• Each year the district provides additional funds to schools that have lower enrollment so that those schools are able to provide the same level of education and services as schools with higher enrollments. This is called a “size factor adjustment.” 
• For the 2023-24 school year, the district allocated about $6.6 million of additional funding to smaller schools to compensate for their lower enrollment numbers. 
• These schools aren’t doing anything wrong. They’re not “failing” or underperforming. We have high-performing schools across PSD that are below, at, and above the target student enrollment totals. 
• The committee aims to reduce the “size factor” through school consolidation. The size factor will not entirely go away, but even a partial reduction would be a huge help in addressing the district’s financial challenges.
   

• Each year, principals are responsible for creating their school budget based on the number of students enrolled in their school. Several school principals participated in a budgeting exercise to determine how many students were needed to provide full, well-rounded educational services. 
• Through this process, it was determined that keeping school enrollment at or above approximately 400 students for elementary schools and at or above approximately 700 students for middle schools provides sufficient funding to support comprehensive programming, resources, and support staff. 
• Not all schools will be able to meet these enrollment numbers due to limitations on their building size and location. However, the goal of school consolidations is to bring enrollment totals at more schools closer to the target enrollment numbers.
   

• Building utilization is a helpful metric because it sets a baseline for the number of students that can occupy our spaces. Building utilization calculations also help us to see ways to improve building use efficiency and/or ways to change how buildings are used. 
• Building utilization is tied to enrollment and budgets. 
• Some buildings are being utilized at less than 50% of their calculated capacity, which means that space is not being used effectively. As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we want to ensure that we’re using our resources as effectively and efficiently as possible and maintaining our community’s assets.
   

• Yes. The committee has been considering walk zones, driving time, and access to public transportation as part of this process.
• The committee is especially attentive to drive times for rural communities. 
   

• The district aims to repurpose empty buildings for alternative and transitional programs, Early Childhood Education, and office space for staff. 
• If a building goes from being a school to a professional development space, for example, the maintenance and long-term operating costs will decrease. PSD would defer maintenance on these buildings to instead prioritize more immediate investment in buildings that are being used by students more regularly. 
   

The district acknowledges that maintaining school of choice is important to families; about 30% of PSD students today use school of choice. School choice is also a part of state law in Colorado.
 

As schools are consolidated, it is likely that there are currently more licensed, classified, and administrative/professional staff than will be needed. Human Resources will lead a process of placing employees in open positions, to the extent possible, across the district in accordance with our Employee Agreement. It is likely that we will see reductions in staff across the district as consolidations occur. 
 

No. Although the committee is considering things like transportation, equity and more, the committee is not responsible for implementing the changes ultimately adopted. 
This will be the second step in this process, likely taken on by one or multiple groups, including staff. They would work through things such as: What will it look like for a school to finish out its last school year in 2024-25? What is the long-term plan to support students, staff, and families in impacted school communities? What needs to happen to move XYZ educational program to a different location?