Colorado's Boulder Valley School District expects continued decline in student enrollment

As the school year begins at Boulder Valley School District, they're keeping a close eye on their enrollment. Early data show the district expects to see a continued decline, as they have since 2018. 

The official student count was taken on Oct. 1, and the state is expected to release that data in the new year. That total count will impact school budgets.

BVSD schools like Eldorado PK-8 are working with the district to find ways to keep students and avoid any budget cuts to things like enrichment programs.

Principal Nick Vanderpol explained, "When you're a school district that has fewer students than you've had in the past, ultimately that means your budget is going to be less."

A continued shrinking budget could also impact enrichment programs and staffing down the line. Vanderpol added, "It impacts the number of adults who are working with kids. It impacts the number of materials that you order."

Vanderpol said Eldorado has decreased some classes and combined student groups over the last few years. But the challenges they're seeing with enrollment aren't unique to BVSD. School districts across the country are seeing lower enrollment driven by declining birth rates and escalating housing costs, among other reasons.

Eldorado parent Laura Baukol, who has lived in Boulder County for the last decade, said she's seen these struggles in her community. 

"When we moved in here 10 years ago, it was a whole different ball game than it is now," she said. 

Recalling conversations with friends about the topic, she said, "I'm like, 'Oh, you should move here. It's so great.' And then the reality of housing prices, they're like, 'Oh, maybe not.' So they end up moving someplace else."

Vanderpol also explained that the pandemic and the Marshall Fire impacted enrollment at BVSD.

In response to the declining enrollment, BVSD says they're working to find solutions and plan ahead. In 2022, the district formed a Long Range Advisory committee for longer-term goals. This includes dedicated work to enrollment strategies and data analysis that explore potential adjustments to curriculum and recruitment efforts. One of those efforts included agreeing to draw new school boundary lines within the district this year, to go into effect next school year.

After 19 years of working in education, Vanderpol says the continued declining enrollment is still fairly new territory. 

"In the past, we never had to even think about those things. They just happened every year," Vanderpol said.

Currently, Eldorado is one of eight schools on an enrollment watch list or Enrollment Advisory Phase. The district describes that as schools where "…an elementary school has fewer than two classes per grade level and enrollment is less than 60% of capacity."

Meanwhile, Heatherwood Elementary is on a higher level of concern at the Community Engagement Phase. This is where cancellation becomes a consideration. The district describes a school in this phase as when "…an elementary school's enrollment continues to decline below 50% capacity and fewer than 1.5 average classes per grade level with a projected trend to continue for at least 5 years."

Through specialized programming and other efforts to keep students, the school also expects to have to rely more on the community for support, as it hopes to stay successful in the community. 

"What do we need to do to make our neighborhood schools the best they can be, to create an environment where families want to raise their kids and remain part of the community?" Vanderpol said.

As a parent, Baukol shared that sentiment, explaining, "I think that's kind of what everybody falls back on, is how much they love this community, and they want to stay at this school for that reason."

As the BVSD navigates these challenges, the future of Eldorado PK-8 and other schools in the district and their budgets will become clearer when the state releases the next official enrollment report expected in the new year.

BVSD's latest updates and actions to address declining enrollment can also be found here.