The facilities team has analyzed blueprints and completed capacity calculations for each school. These capacity numbers are not based on the maximum number of students that could legally occupy a building, but rather on how many students could comfortably fit and be educated in our classrooms while using each school building efficiently.

To determine each school's capacity, the number of teaching spaces in the building is multiplied by the number of students those spaces can accommodate. This calculation is called the Room Index Capacity (RIC). The RIC is then multiplied by 80% to determine the National Standard Capacity (NSC) of the building. Applying this factor effectively reduces the capacity of the building by 20% in recognition that it is not best practice for every room in a school to be used concurrently. It should be noted that the RIC and NSC do not account for classrooms dedicated to center-based Integrated Services programs or Early Childhood classrooms.

To determine the total number of available seats in the district, the capacity of each building was calculated and total current enrollment was subtracted, indicating that there are currently approximately 10,000 empty seats in PSD schools, not including PSD-authorized charter schools.

It is important to note that it is not PSD's objective nor expectation that each of our schools be filled to maximum capacity, yielding zero empty seats. The ~10,000 number is not a directive of how many seats the district seeks to fill or reduce; rather, it is a snapshot of where our enrollment currently stands compared to the capacities of our buildings.

Every child at PSD should have access to a full-time art teacher, a full-time counselor, a full section of an elective, a full-time nurse. Below roughly 80% utilization, those positions start getting split between buildings or cut altogether — and the students in that building get less than students down the road.

Elementary buildings are designed for about 500 students in most cases, middle schools for about 1,100, and high schools for 1,700 to 2,500. Some PSD schools today are running at less than half full.

PSD provides about $8.4 million a year in small-school support funding — money added to school budgets specifically because those schools are too small to fund a full staff through the standard per-pupil formula. It is distributed across 33 schools, both neighborhood and choice.

That money is not new money. It comes out of the same general fund every other school draws from.

In spring 2026 we surveyed principals about how enrollment decline is showing up in their buildings. Twenty-four responded. Three themes came back consistently:

• Student supports are eroding. Declining enrollment has already forced cuts to paraprofessionals, IEP support, and mental health counselors.
• Programming is shrinking and ratios are rising. Budget constraints are pushing student-to-teacher ratios up and cutting into specials — art, music, PE — and gifted and talented programming.
• Growth would reverse it. Principals were clear that more students in a building would let them stabilize staffing, expand specialized services, and offer more to every student.

Principals were consistent that more students in a building would let them stabilize staffing and expand what they offer. That shows up in specific, concrete ways for students and for the educators who work with them. Schools operating closer to capacity can sustain enrichment programming, mental health support, and collaborative time for staff. This helps ensure a student's experience doesn't depend on which PSD school they attend.

It is about how many children live here. Birth rates are down and fewer young families are moving into our attendance area. Any meaningful enrollment rebound would depend on new families moving in, and current projections from the state demographer do not show that happening within this planning window.

Districts across Colorado and the country are working through the same math. Jefferson County, Denver, Boulder Valley, Douglas County, Adams 12 and Thompson are all considering or carrying out school closures and consolidations for the same reason.