Blue Heron Elementary School

2023 Board Updates

• May 11, 2023: Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools Phase II Resolution
• May 3, 2023: Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools Phase II Resolution Study Session
• February 24, 2023: Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools Phase I and Phase II Update
• January 19, 2023: School Properties Disposition Board Presentation 

2022 Board Updates

• November 10, 2022: Board decision on Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools
• November 8, 2022: Wheat Ridge Development Update Memo
• November 2, 2022:
  • Regional Opportunities Update to the BoE, Community Conversations and Survey Results
  • Keystone Report
• October 12, 2022: Regional Opportunities Update to the BoE
• September 7, 2022: Regional Opportunities Update to the BoE 
• August 25, 2022: Final Regional Opportunities Recommendation

Candid Conversations with our Jeffco Community (Video Series)

View the playlist on YouTube.

As part of our Path Forward to Thriving Schools series, we sat down with various members of the Jeffco community who have experienced a school closure. Watch these candid conversations featuring Jeffco staff and parents as they shed light on their bittersweet journeys.

Check out this candid conversation with Valerie Moreno as she shares some of her thoughts about her own experience with school consolidation.

Check out this candid conversation with Sandy McSperrin as she shares some of her thoughts about her own experience with school consolidation.

Check out this candid conversation with former Allendale principal, Rob Malling, as he shares some of his thoughts about his own experience with school consolidation.

Check out this candid conversation between Matt Palaoro, Jeffco's Chief Student Success Officer, and Jeffco parent, Michelle Miley. Matt and Michelle discuss the transition of her son from one of our special education center-based programs.

Check out this candid conversation with Anthony West, a former parent of two students at Allendale Elementary, which closed in the spring of 2021. Anthony shares some of his thoughts about his own experience with school consolidation.

Check out this candid conversation with Tessel Stevenson, a former parent of two students at Fitzmorris Elementary, which closed in the spring of 2022. Tessel shares some thoughts about her own experience with school consolidation.

Jeffco has capacity to serve 96,000 students in its traditional district-managed schools and we currently only serve 69,000 students. Thirty-nine percent of the district’s excess capacity is at the elementary school level.

The impact of Jeffco’s excess capacity is felt in nearly every corner of our district as we stretch our resources to sustain the number of schools we have, with declining enrollment. It is hard on all school communities when we do not efficiently utilize our resources and take advantage of economies of scale.

Most importantly, it creates inequities in the educational opportunities that schools are able to provide to students due to budget limitations.

Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools Phase I focused on thriving elementary schools. Phase I included the development of a consolidation plan that:

• Avoids future emergency spring closure decisions for schools.
• Moves the district toward a future where all elementary schools are thriving with foundational programming that is more equitable across our different elementary schools
• Authentically engages families, students, staff, and community in the conversation and process.
• Provides information and time to respect families who will make decisions in the choice process.
• Lays the groundwork for Phase II Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools with a focus on bringing regional cohesion, PK-12, with a vision toward the future.

Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools encourages all of us to consider the stewarding of our resources in ways that provide exceptional student experiences in support of collaborative and data driven team cultures. It calls for a comprehensive, proactive plan.

2023 Related Media Coverage 

• Colorado Sun: "Jeffco will shuffle kids from 16 closing elementary schools to ones falling behind in reading and math"

2022 Related Media Coverage 

The Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools media report contains a compilation of media mentions for Jeffco’s Regional Opportunities for Thriving Schools initiative between June 1 and December 31, 2022. Read the report.

Members of the media can contact the Jeffco Media Relations Team to request an interview.