Colorado parents prepare for closures of 3 elementary schools and movement of 6th grade to middle school in Highlands Ranch
The Douglas County School District has announced which Highlands Ranch elementary schools will be consolidated. The decision comes after two years of planning, policy recommendations, and meetings with parents in the Colorado community.
Starting in the 2026-27 school year, Saddle Ranch, Heritage, and Acres Green elementary schools will be closed, with students consolidated into Eldorado, Summit View, and Fox Creek, respectively.
"It hits home for me," said Highlands Ranch resident Ashley Kukuczka.
Kukuczka and her parents moved to the growing Highlands Ranch community in the late 1990s, when an influx of young families led to the construction of several new schools.
"They were the first owners of their house in this development," Kukuczka said.
Today, many of those families are now empty nesters.
"They're still in their house. A lot of their neighbors are still original neighbors. Their kids have grown and moved away, and you don't see a lot of new, younger families moving in," Kukuczka said.
"We have 16 neighborhood schools in Highlands Ranch that used to house about 11,000 kids. Today, we're getting close to 6,000 kids in those same 16 buildings," said Erin Kane, superintendent of Douglas County School District.
Kukuczka was in the first graduating sixth-grade class at Eldorado Elementary. Next school year, her daughter Milly will be in the last.
"It's made its full cycle through, which is mind-blowing in itself," Kukuczka said.
Saddle Ranch Elementary will be consolidated into Eldorado in 2026, and sixth graders across Highlands Ranch will be moved to middle school.
"It'll be interesting to see how they fit all of these kids in a middle school that is only built for two grades," Kukuczka said.
Kukuczka, a salon owner, said school consolidation is a hot topic among her clients.
"A lot of what people are worried about is just fitting all the kids into a school. Will they end up in mobiles outside? What's the security look like? Is there space for them? Is there space for the teachers? And the traffic -- it's already so congested to get an extra 600 families to school in the morning, and a funnel is going to be interesting," Kukuczka said.
"All of these schools have had more kids than they're going to have now. Again, when we had 11,000 kids throughout Highlands Ranch, most of these schools had 500 to 600 students, so none of them are going over capacity with our consolidation, which is sort of case in point why we need to do the consolidations," Kane said.
Many parents are now grappling with the news that their child's school will close.
"It's home base. It's been the heart and the home of this community, and it's now dead," Saddle Ranch parent Jordan Hayes said. "The legacy of this school in this community is now dead. I'm pretty disgruntled."
"No matter what, when we made recommendations, there were going to be three school communities that were going to be heartbroken, which I completely understand. I'm so sorry for those families, and I want them to know that we are here for them and we are going to support them every way that we possibly can," Kane said.
The rapid development followed by a need for schools that Highlands Ranch once saw is not unique. Other Douglas County communities, like Sterling Ranch, could face similar issues in 20 years. Sterling Ranch will soon have its first neighborhood school built. Kane said to avoid closures in Sterling Ranch in the future, the district is prioritizing building large schools with higher capacity.
The district plans to hold onto closed school buildings for district programming. Whether the names of consolidated schools will remain the same will be up to the school communities.
Staff in closed schools have been guaranteed jobs in the district through 2028. The closure recommendations will be presented to the school board on April 8 and voted on April 22.
