The Douglas County School District is proposing to close three Highlands Ranch elementary schools next year, becoming the latest metro Denver system to consider closures in response to falling K-12 enrollment.
The district’s recommendation, which was announced Monday evening, was anticipated, and Superintendent Erin Kane and other officials have spent months giving presentations about the need to close schools in Highlands Ranch, where there are too few students.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision that we had to make,” Kane said in an interview Tuesday. “No matter what school we picked, there’s a community where it’s really heartbreaking for them.”
If the Board of Education approves the recommendation on April 22, the three schools will close before the 2026-27 academic year.
These are the schools recommended for closure:
- Saddle Ranch Elementary, with students moving to Eldorado Elementary
- Heritage Elementary, with students moving to Summit View Elementary
- Acres Green Elementary, with students moving to Fox Creek Elementary
District officials also proposed shifting sixth-graders in Highlands Ranch to middle schools, a plan they also hope to implement districtwide in the future. The plan would affect elementary schools that feed into Cresthill, Mountain Ridge and Ranch View middle schools.
Moving sixth-graders will help middle schools that also struggle with low enrollment, Kane said, adding that district officials have found that middle schools with three grades have better student-staff relationships and parent engagement than those that only teach seventh- and eighth-graders.
Public school enrollment is falling statewide as fewer Coloradans have babies. The state enrolled 881,065 students, from preschool to 12th grade, in October, the lowest number of pupils in 11 years, according to data from the Colorado Department of Education.
The Douglas County School District is the state’s third-largest district, with 61,851 students as of October –down 7%, or 4,851 students, from a decade ago, according to state data.
Schools are funded based on the number of students in their classrooms, so when enrollment falls, it places financial pressure on districts and can affect the classes and services they are able to offer students. For this reason, districts including Denver Public Schools and Jeffco Public Schools have begun closing schools.
Housing costs and new development are also shifting where families live in the metro area. This means the Douglas County School District, which spans 850 square miles, is also building new schools in neighborhoods — such as the Sterling Ranch and RidgeGate communities — that need them.
In Douglas County, declining enrollment has been most notable in Highlands Ranch.
More than 10,400 children attended Highlands Ranch elementary schools a decade ago. But that number has dropped to 7,409 students, a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years, according to the district.
“That’s just not sustainable,” Kane said, adding, “If we don’t do anything at Highlands Ranch, our schools will continue to languish.”
District officials looked at 16 Highlands Ranch schools before recommending which ones should close.
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