Some schools could go up for sale after facilities review

JEFFERSON COUNTY – A task force of school district officials and community members are examining the use of the district’s facilities and some properties could wind up on the chopping block.

The district, at present, is financially healthy with some $160 million in reserves, but those reserves were built with the under standing “that we would have to spend them down” eventually, said Dr. Cindy Stevenson, district superintendent.

Last spring, the district decided to take a look at the long-term decisions, some of them difficult ones, to keep the schools operating on a sound financial footing.

“One of the issue that came up was: Do we need all the buildings that we have, are we using our buildings in the most efficient and effective way possible,” Stevenson said.

To find the answer, the district last spring appointed the 30-member task force comprised of school district staff and citizens. They have been working since March and have compiled a list of 45 options involving schools across the district.

Now the district plans a series of meetings to gather public input before sending the final suggestions to the Jeffco School Board, which will make the final decisions.

The potential savings on the table could vary from a few thousand dollars to a million or more a year, depending on which options the school board chooses when they consider the recommendations in January, Stevenson said.

“It has to do with A: being efficient and using every dollar we can. And B: Do we need all our facilities,” she said.

The suggested options do not target 45 specific schools or properties, rather they involve combinations of options and many of the properties under scrutiny each involve various options from closing and selling schools to transferring students so temporary buildings coould be eliminated.

For instance, Option 1A proposes moving 6th grade students from Deane, Kendrick Lakes, Lasley, Patterson and Stein elementary schools to O’Connell Middle School. Option 1B would move the 7th and 8th grades from O’Connell, sending them instead to Alameda High School, which would become a 7-12 school. Under that option, the district would close O’Connell and sell the site. But under a third option involving O’Connell, the district would disperse Carmody Middle School students to Dunstan, Creighton and O’Connell middle schools and the district would close Carmody.

Even if some schools are closed, the district then must decide whether to dispose of the property or keep it for future use if enrollment trends reverse,  Stevenson said.

Enrollment  is just one of six criteria the task force used to compile their list of options. They also considered each school’s academic achievement, the conditions of each building, the capacity use of each school, how many students are enrolled in each school as a “school of choice” and operating costs of each property.

“If you close a school, you have to look at whether you save it or you keep it,” Stevenson said. The ones that look most likely to be closed probably would be sold,

“and a variety of people want to buy school buildings,” she added.

But some other properties “wouldn’t be very logical to put on sale because they are not in a place where that people are going to develop.”

The task force also looked at the district’s vacant land inventory, but found that most of those properties are encumbered by agreements with cities or the county that restrict their disposal.

“The city might own a big chunk of the land as a park, so you really can’t sell most of them,” Stevenson said. “A lot of the land we own, we don’t really own it. When you get land from a developer, frequently – if you don’t buy it outright and they dedicate that land – and if you don’t build a school on it in a certain number of years, the land reverts to the city or county.”

The district is taking the 45 options, and the fate of a number of schools, to the public in a series of November meetings for community input before taking the facilities-use hit list to the school board.

The first meeting will be 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lakewood’s Alameda High School auditorium. Other meetings are Saturday, Nov. 14 at Manning School from 9 a,m, to 10:30 a.m.; Summit Ridge High School, Monday, Nov. 16 from 6 -7:30 p.m.; and Wednesday, Nov. 18 at Pomona High School from 6-7:30 p.m.

If you wish to speak at one of the meetings, the district suggests you sign up at least 30 minutes before the meeting starts.

Written comments can be submitted by e-mail at facilities@jeffco.k-12.co.us or mailed to Jeffco Public Schools, Communications Services, 1829 Denver West Drive, Golden, Colo., 80401. Comments also can be offered via telephone at 303-982-6837 (no messages will be returned).

To see the 45 options or for more information, visit the district’s web site.