Haylands Ranch, Colorado (KDVR)-Douglas County School Province issued on Monday its recommendation to unify three primary schools in three other schools starting in 2026-2027.
The province issued its announcement after years of discussions, and said that the decision was the result of “an intensive analysis to address the decrease in registration in parts of the highlands highlands and to ensure access to a comprehensive and well -trained education with employment and full resources.”
“I am very sorry because we are in this situation, but this is not sustainable,” said DCSD Erin Kane’s director of Fox31. “It is not financially sustainable. More importantly, it affects children. We want to make sure to maintain children’s chances.”
Fox31 sat with Kane to request parents’ concerns. For beginners, we asked them to break numbers by registering and financing.
“Well, if you are logically thinking, about 11,000 children are in 16 buildings and 6000 children in 16 buildings, you can see the financial piece,” Kane said. “What we have calculated is that for all our schools that are smaller schools, the cost of $ 2,500 per student to preserve them, to preserve our smaller schools. Our expectations show that even schools that do not fall into small schools, but they will go in the next year or two years.
Looking at the recommendations of the recommended unified schools, the issue of transportation comes in a region and a country that already lacks adequate bus drivers to support students as they are.
“We will provide transportation, as we always do to everyone, a mile outside a radius with a mile of their school, and we are committed to doing this in Douglas County,” Kane said. “We have regained most of the methods of obfuscation and roads because we are doing a better job in getting bus drivers, but we are committed to that. We give up all bus fees for affected families for at least two years.”
DSCD also recommends that in the Highlands Ranch, the sixth grade is transmitted to the middle school that begins in the academic year 2026-2027 (for elementary schools in highlands that feed on CrestHill, Mountain Ridge and Ranch View Middles). Fox31 asked what this means and the recommendations of unification for teachers and employees in these schools.
Kane told Fox31 that the province guarantees all affected employees a job during the 2027-2028 academic year.
“We are trying to be studied as much as we can when it comes to our employees, and they will have a priority employment mode all over our entire region,” Kane said. “Therefore, they will have access to jobs before publishing them, and we will be able to reconcile the place they want to go. We will also appoint a manager as a private mission position who will work with families and employees, and help to ensure that all employees want and help our families through them.”
Kane said that the affected students would get the priority for open registration if they want to register.