The Boulder Valley school board voted 5-2 Tuesday to move forward with a proposal district leaders say is necessary to use resources more efficiently in response to declining enrollment, amid calls from parents and local officials to delay the decision.
Boulder Valley School District leadership presented the proposal four weeks ago. The plan closes Douglass, Flatirons, Mesa and Birch elementary schools, changes the grades served at two K-8 schools and relocates two focus schools. The changes take effect in fall 2027.
Board President Nicole Rajpal and board members Alex Medler, Jason Unger, Lalenia Quinlan Aweida and Jorge Chávez voted for the plan. Rajpal and other supporters said it was in the district’s best interest.
“In voting for this plan I truly believe that we are voting to provide the best learning environments for our students and staff,” Rajpal said.
Board members Deann Bucher and Ana Temu Otting voted against the plan after each proposed a resolution to remove elements of it. Both resolutions received support only from those two members.
“You are brave enough to survive whatever happens tonight,” said Bucher, who received a loud ovation from the packed room after a speech expressing sadness about the decisions being made.
The applause contrasted with the boos directed at board member Lalenia Quinlan Aweida, seated beside Bucher, during remarks that some in the crowd viewed as misrepresenting community pushback to the plan.
Parents and community members from schools slated to close questioned the reliability of enrollment projections and whether the plan would leave some schools crowded and others underenrolled. They also said the district had not provided enough analysis or alternatives to the proposal. More than 5,000 people signed a petition asking the board to pause the vote and address unanswered questions.
The district says receiving schools will have room for incoming students, though some may need to limit open enrollment or rearrange existing spaces. In its published FAQ, BVSD also says savings from closing schools will allow it to reduce class sizes at all elementary schools.
Boulder City Councilmember Tara Winer, the entire Lafayette City Council, members of the Broomfield City Council and state Rep. Junie Joseph also sent letters to the board suggesting a pause on the vote. The letters argued that further planning was needed to ensure an effective long-term solution, citing unresolved questions about enrollment projections and how city planning efforts could affect those estimates.
Hundreds of parents, kids and community members gathered outside the BVSD office before the meeting with signs, microphones and T-shirts to call for a pause. Students chanted to passing cars, saying “save our schools,” and parents expressed frustration about the short time between the proposal’s release and the vote and what they felt was a lack of real engagement.
Rajpal said in her opening comments that those who reached out to her right away after the proposal was presented received a response. After that, she said, attorneys were hired and advised against further email communication.
Bob Segar, a former planner and Douglass grandparent, said the way this process played out was not proper engagement because community feedback was only gathered before the plan was announced and only one proposal was offered, with no alternatives to compare.
“This is not dialogue, this is protest,” he said.
The closures show how far school communities extend beyond the physical facilities.
South Boulder Little League Board President Dean Caramanidis also wrote a letter to the board arguing that closing Douglass and Flatirons would send its players into three other Little Leagues, break up this year’s 11U state champions and cut off the free T-ball pipeline that fills every team.
Beginning in fall 2027, the changes will redraw school communities across the district. Mesa will merge with Bear Creek, and Birch with Kohl, in the receiving schools’ buildings. Douglass’ attendance area will be divided among Coal Creek, Eisenhower and Heatherwood, and Flatirons’ between Whittier and Foothill.
High Peaks will move to Douglass, while Community Montessori will leave its building for High Peaks’ space at Aurora 7, sharing the campus with the Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies.
Eldorado PK-8 will become an elementary school, and Monarch PK-8 will become a middle school serving both schools’ middle-grade attendance areas. Monarch’s preschool-through-fifth-grade attendance area will be divided among Fireside, Superior and Eldorado.
Still awaiting details on central office cuts and staffing models
The district says closing schools will free up millions of dollars for the remaining schools, but Superintendent Rob Anderson has promised to make cuts to central administration as well.
During budget discussions this April, Anderson said he asked his staff to identify $1 million in cuts within central administration and included that amount in the budget for redistribution. When Boulder Reporting Lab followed up last week to ask exactly where those savings would come from, the district said that information was not yet available.
During the Sept. 15 work session, Anderson was asked directly about those cuts by board member Jorge Chávez. He said the dollars would be reinvested to eliminate multi-age classrooms. However, the district has said the proposal would eliminate those classrooms on its own, so it’s unclear how the administrative savings would contribute to that goal.
According to a slide presented at the work session, half of the schools with part-time staff will not be given full resources due to their low enrollment — a concern raised by many parents whose children are being reassigned to those schools. The district did not provide details when questioned about whether resource allocation policies would change at schools receiving new students but continuing to have low enrollment.
For instance, schools with fewer than 350 students are generally considered “two-round” schools, with each grade having about two classes. At that threshold, resources start to get shared, with traveling specials teachers and interventionists. So parents wonder: Will their school be closed and their child reassigned to a school with fewer resources?
Attempts to change the plan
Bucher was the first to propose a resolution in support of teachers with children in district schools. A career educator herself, she wanted the district to help those children attend the schools where their parents teach. She raised concerns that teachers might not know their work assignments until after the priority open enrollment period for their children had ended. That resolution was dropped after Anderson promised to engage with the union on an agreement addressing that concern.
Temu Otting then submitted a resolution to remove Broomfield schools from the proposal until after Adams 12 votes on its closure plan, which she believes will affect enrollment at BVSD’s Broomfield schools.
“I was elected to represent all of BVSD but Broomfield is my home,” she said in an earlier statement.
That resolution was supported only by Bucher, with the others agreeing that there was no time to waste and the plan only worked as a whole.
Finally, Bucher spoke emotionally about her last resolution, to retain Douglass, which is slated to close, with students divided among three other schools and High Peaks taking over its campus. She spoke about the need to retain rural aspects of the district and designate Douglass as a rural school, arguing that enrollment projections focused on students living nearby were unfair to a school in an area with such sparse housing.
That resolution was supported by Temu Otting but no others.
What comes next
“I implore everyone in this room to stay engaged!” yelled one parent after the proposal passed and board members exited the room for a break. “Our voices are loudest every time we cast a vote.”
One person chanted “recall Rajpal,” while others just shrugged and committed to continuing to work on the issue throughout the transition process.
Some attendees left the room in tears after a month of trying to make sense of the proposal. For families, the next task is figuring out how to navigate the transition.
Flatirons mom Heather Thorne said she’s considering all of her options and will try to stay with her school community. Her family’s attendance area will be reassigned to Whittier Elementary.
“We will never let our son bike there,” she said, citing traffic concerns.
She also wonders what will happen to the school building and whether its future use will serve neighborhood families. The district has said decisions about unused buildings will be addressed through a separate process.
