Mesa County will add three vacant elementary schools to Colorado’s growing list of retired school buildings.
The Mesa County Valley School District 51 Board of Education voted Friday to close two more elementary schools for a total of three buildings that will clear out for good at the end of this school year. The decision comes amid declining enrollment that’s been seen both in Mesa County and statewide.
“Closing schools is never the preferred path, but given the realities we face, be it declining enrollment, aging facilities, or limited funding and declining birth rates, we must steward our resources in a way that serves all students district-wide for years to come,” Board President Andrea Hatiz said following the unanimous vote.
The buildings marked for closure Friday were Clifton Elementary and Scenic Elementary. Earlier in the week, the school board announced the closure of Nisley Elementary, which had also been underperforming by state standards in recent years.
The board had planned to make the decision at a single meeting, but held off on deciding the fate of Clifton and Scenic after more than six hours of discussion and public comment last Tuesday.
Part of the delay was in order to assess whether or not housing developments in the area could bring in new families that might bolster classroom rosters. Shannon Bingham, a demographer who contracts with the district to provide enrollment projections and data, said the outlook for new children in the district was low.
“This birthrate thing is not just hurting us. It’s hurting every district in the state of Colorado right now,” said Bingham.
Mesa County started grappling with its aging facilities and declining enrollment last year when the board closed a middle school in the heart of Grand Junction. In light of community pushback over that decision, the district created a subcommittee to evaluate school closures and provide a framework to decide which schools should be closed.
“I didn't get into this business to close schools, either. I've activated probably 200 schools in my career, and the last eight years have been a wild ride for me as far as trying to help districts be as financially efficient as possible,” Bingham said.
While Mesa County has seen a spur of new construction in recent years, Bingham said declining birthrates projections for the next several years show fewer kindergarteners are on the way, more homes or not.
“If you're going to do the math in a heartless way with your head down without looking up and watching what's happening around you, that's what the math says,” he said.
