Boulder School District Approves Closure of Five Schools

BY DECISION OF THE BOULDER VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT | Douglass Elementary School will close its doors. (Photo / Courtesy Mitchell Byars)

NINTH DISTRICTS TO CLOSE SCHOOLS SINCE 2025

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

The Board of Education of the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) approved Resolution 26-27 of the Resilient Schools plan with five votes in favor and two against. The measure provides for the reorganization of sixteen campuses and the permanent closure of five school buildings starting in the 2027-2028 school year, in response to a demographic contraction that projects ongoing enrollment losses in the coming years.

The board’s decision includes closing Mesa Elementary to merge its student body with Bear Creek Elementary, as well as closing Flatirons Elementary to redistribute its students between Foothill and Whittier schools. Likewise, Douglass Elementary will close its doors, turning its facilities over to High Peaks Elementary, while Douglass students will attend Coal Creek, Eisenhower, and Heatherwood campuses.

For its part, Community Montessori school will leave its current building to operate on the Aurora 7 campus. In the Broomfield area, approval was granted to close Birch Elementary to consolidate it with Kohl Elementary, while in Louisville and Superior, Eldorado PK-8 school will serve strictly elementary grades and Monarch PK-8 will operate exclusively as a middle school.

Frees Up Around $4 Million Annually

The outcome of the vote triggered moments of tension and commotion among the public in the school auditorium, where parents, students, and teachers held prior protests to demand an end to the closures. Community activists who launched the “Save Our Schools” campaign point out that student loss responds to high residential housing costs that make it impossible for young families to move into the area.

In response to the complaints, district authorities indicated that the operational cuts will consolidate resources to free up between 3.5 and 4 million dollars annually, funds that will be reassigned to fund teacher salaries, maintain small class sizes, and preserve support in art, music, and counseling areas.

K-12 Education System Lost 42,000 Students in Colorado

The restructuring approved in Boulder is not an isolated event, but aligns with an enrollment crisis affecting school districts across the state. Since 2025, at least nine Colorado jurisdictions have ordered the closure or consolidation of educational facilities to reduce fixed costs. Similar measures were agreed upon by school districts in Denver, Jeffco, Aurora, Douglas, Cherry Creek, Adams, and Pueblo.

Official figures published by the Colorado Department of Education confirm that statewide preschool to 12th-grade enrollment fell to 870,793 students in the current cycle, setting the lowest cumulative record in the last decade. Historical trends reflect that, after reaching a peak of more than 913,000 students in 2019, the state’s public education system has lost more than 42 thousand enrolled students.