Oct. 4, 2023
Dear Polaris Expeditionary Learning School staff, parents/guardians and students,
You are invited to attend a community engagement session later this month to learn about changes that will go into effect for Polaris for the 202425 school year.
We are excited to increase access to Expeditionary Learning, which has been in high demand in our community. As part of that, PSD will take the current K12 school and create two Polaris campuses. Students in grades K5 will go to Polaris at Olande r Elementary, located in west Fort Collins near Spring Canyon Park. Polaris at Blevins, also located in west Fort Collins, will be for students in grades 6-12. Neither will be a school-within-a-school model; students on both campuses will be part of the Expeditionary Learning model.
There are some important enrollment process changes to note:
What to know about community engagement
This is an opportunity to learn more, ask questions and offer feedback. Your input will be considered as PSD moves forward with these changes.
Please use this link to RSVP so we can plan accordingly for space:
We want to ensure that students and their families have strong educational options in PSD that meet their unique needs and help them experience academic success. PSD is taking proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining for several years and is projected to continue, as Superintendent Brian Kingsley indicated in his Sept. 26 email. PSD gets less funding when fewer students attend our schools, and a shrinking budget puts robust program offerings and other student
opportunities at risk.
Our efforts are centered upon minimizing the current impacts of declining enrollment, be good fiscal and building stewards, and grow high demand programs such as Expeditionary Learning. PSD will
communicate the bigger picture changes following an Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting.
Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Dear Olander Elementary School staff and parents/guardians,
You are invited to attend a community engagement session later this month to learn about changes that will go into effect for Olander for the 202425 school year.
We want to ensure that students and their families have strong educational options in PSD that meet their unique needs and help them experience academic success. PSD is taking proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining for several years and is projected to continue, as Superintendent Brian Kingsley indicated in his Sept. 26 email. PSD gets less funding when fewer students attend our schools, and a shrinking budget puts robust program offerings and other student opportunities at risk. To minimize the current impacts of declining enrollment, which has impacted Olander, specifically; be good fiscal and building stewards; and grow high demand programs such as Expeditionary Learning, PSD will make the following Olander specific changes that are among a number of others on the horizon. PSD will communicate the bigger picture changes following an Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting.
We are excited to increase access to Expeditionary Learning, which has been in high demand in our community. As part of that, PSD will take the current K12 school and create two new Polaris Expeditionary Learning campuses at the existing Olander Elementary School building and existing Blevins Middle School building. Students in grades K5 will remain at Olander Elementary for the 202425 school
year. Neither will be a school-within-a-school model; students on both campuses will be part of the Expeditionary Learning model. The fundamental idea behind Expeditionary Learning is that students learn more by experiencing the world around them. Expeditionary Learning harnesses the students’ natural passion to learn and helps children develop the curiosity, knowledge, skills, and personal qualities they need for successful adulthood.
Students who are currently enrolled at Olander and live within the Olander neighborhood boundaries do not need to take any additional steps to remain enrolled at Polaris at Olander for the 2024-25 school year. Those who live inside the Olander neighborhood boundary and do not want to attend in 2024-25 need to submit an application as part of the School of Choice process, which starts Nov. 1. More information will be posted on the PSD website.
There are some important enrollment process changes to note:
What to know about community engagement
This is an opportunity to learn more, ask questions and offer feedback. Your input will be considered as PSD moves forward with these changes.
Please use this link to RSVP so we can plan accordingly for space: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/olanderelementaryschoolcommunityengagementtickets731422252647
Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Oct. 4, 2023
Dear Blevins Middle School staff, parents/guardians and students,
You are invited to attend a community engagement session later this month to learn about changes that will go into effect for Blevins for the 2024-25 school year.
We want to ensure that students and their families have strong educational options in PSD that meet their unique needs and help them experience academic success. PSD is taking proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining for several years and is projected to continue, as Superintendent Brian Kingsley indicated in his Sept. 26 email. PSD gets less funding when fewer students attend our schools, and a shrinking budget puts robust program offerings and other student opportunities at risk.
To minimize the current impacts of declining enrollment, which has impacted Blevins, specifically; be good fiscal and building stewards; and grow high-demand programs such as Expeditionary Learning, PSD will make the following Blevins-specific changes that are among a number of others on the horizon. PSD will communicate the bigger-picture changes following an Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting.
We are excited to increase access to Expeditionary Learning, which has been in high demand in our community. As part of that, PSD will take the current K-12 school and create two new Polaris Expeditionary Learning campuses at the existing Olander Elementary School building and existing Blevins Middle School building. Students in grades 6 and 7 will remain at Blevins for the 2024-25 school year. Neither campus will be a school-within-a-school model; students on both campuses will be part of the Expeditionary Learning model. The fundamental idea behind Expeditionary Learning is that students learn more by experiencing the world around them. Expeditionary Learning harnesses the students’ natural passion to learn and helps children develop the curiosity, knowledge, skills, and personal qualities they need for successful adulthood.
Students who are currently enrolled at Blevins and live within the Blevins neighborhood boundaries do not need to take any additional steps to remain enrolled at Polaris at Blevins for the 2024-25 school year. Those who live inside the Blevins neighborhood boundary and do not want to attend in 2024-25 need to submit an application as part of the School of Choice process, which starts Nov. 1. More information will be posted on the PSD website.
There are some important enrollment process changes to note:
What to know about community engagement
Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Oct. 4, 2023
Dear Poudre Community Academy staff, parents/guardians and students,
You are invited to attend a community engagement session later this month to learn about changes that will go into effect for Poudre Community Academy for the 2024-25 school year.
We want to ensure that students and their families have strong educational options in PSD that meet their unique needs and help them experience academic success. This includes ensuring that dynamic and life-changing alternative education programs are sustained well into the future.
PSD is taking proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining for several years and is projected to continue, as Superintendent Brian Kingsley indicated in his Sept. 26 email. PSD gets less funding when fewer students attend our schools, and a shrinking budget puts robust program offerings and other student opportunities at risk.
To minimize the current impacts of declining enrollment, grow high-demand programs, and be good fiscal and building stewards, PSD will make the following Poudre Community Academy-specific changes that are among a number of others on the horizon. PSD will communicate the bigger-picture changes following an Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting.
For the 2024-25 school year, PCA and Centennial High School will move into the building that currently houses Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, at 1905 Orchard Place in Fort Collins. PSD plans to make renovations at the current building on Orchard Place to meet the needs of PCA and Centennial students.
The staff and students at PCA and Centennial, with support from the district, have been asked to work together to come up with how alternative education will look and feel in that space. This is not Centennial in one wing and PCA in another. It’s about coming together and building a vision of how we can best support our students and their unique needs.
If your student is already enrolled, no steps are necessary to remain enrolled in 2024-25. If you are considering changing schools for next school year, PSD’s School of Choice application window opens Nov. 1, and information will be available on the PSD website.
We anticipate that this news will prompt a range of emotions and questions. That is OK; that is normal. Please bring your questions and ideas to the Oct. 16 meeting. We will do our best to answer what we can now, knowing that more information will come out as planning happens in the coming months.
What to know about community engagement
Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Oct. 4, 2023
Dear Centennial High School staff, parents/guardians and students,
You are invited to attend a community engagement session later this month to learn about changes that will go into effect for Centennial High School for the 2024-25 school year.
We want to ensure that students and their families have strong educational options in PSD that meet their unique needs and help them experience academic success. This includes ensuring that dynamic and life-changing alternative education programs are sustained well into the future.
PSD is taking proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining for several years and is projected to continue, as Superintendent Brian Kingsley indicated in his Sept. 26 email. PSD gets less funding when fewer students attend our schools, and a shrinking budget puts robust program offerings and other student opportunities at risk.
To minimize the current impacts of declining enrollment, grow high-demand programs, and be good fiscal and building stewards, PSD will make the following Centennial-specific changes that are among a number of others on the horizon. PSD will communicate the bigger-picture changes following an Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting.
For the 2024-25 school year, Centennial High School and Poudre Community Academy will move into the building that currently houses Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, at 1905 Orchard Place in Fort Collins. PSD plans to make renovations at the current building on Orchard Place to meet the needs of Centennial and PCA students.
The staff and students at Centennial and PCA, with support from the district, have been asked to work together to come up with how alternative education will look and feel in that space. This is not Centennial in one wing and PCA in another. It’s about coming together and building a vision of how we can best support our students and their unique needs.
If your student is already enrolled, no steps are necessary to remain enrolled in 2024-25. If you are considering changing schools for next school year, PSD’s School of Choice application window opens Nov. 1, and information will be available on the PSD website.
We anticipate that this news will prompt a range of emotions and questions. That is OK; that is normal. Please bring your questions and ideas to the Oct. 19 meeting. We will do our best to answer what we can now, knowing that more information will come out as planning happens in the coming months.
What to know about community engagement
Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Sept. 28, 2023
Dear Olander staff members,
As you have heard, there are changes on the horizon for our district. You are invited to a meeting with the superintendent and members of Cabinet on Wednesday, October 4 at 3:15 p.m. at Olander to discuss these changes and how they will affect your school community. There is no need to RSVP.
We know this is short notice and you are all busy, dedicated professionals. The information we have to share is important and we want to be able to meet with you in-person and provide an opportunity to ask questions. We also understand that you may have other commitments that you are not able to reschedule. If that is the case, please know that more information will be communicated to all staff and families in a presentation to the Board of Education on October 10 and in an email that will follow that evening.
For those of you who are off contract during the scheduled time of this meeting, you will be paid in accordance with the employee agreement. There will be a sign in sheet at the meeting that will be used to record attendance and by your office manager to manage pay.
We sincerely hope to see all of you there next week.
Sincerely,
Brian Kingsley & the PSD Leadership Team
Oct. 5, 2023
Dear Poudre School District community,
This is a follow up to my Sept. 26 email about changes that will happen in Poudre School District for the 2024-25 school year. The following changes are necessary to ensure our school district’s vitality and ability to support student success for years to come. As we do this work, we will hold tight to our values of offering innovative programming and educational choices for our students and their families; being good stewards of taxpayer dollars; and providing outstanding educational opportunities while using available space in our buildings as effectively as possible. We must take proactive steps to address student enrollment that has been declining in PSD for several years largely because of the high cost of living in our community and decreasing birth rates in our region, in Colorado, and across the nation. PSD is not the only school district facing these challenges. Demographers project that PSD’s current enrollment of roughly 30,000 students will dip by about 10% over the next several years. That translates to a cut of about $40 million from PSD’s total annual budget of about $400 million. Acknowledging that the changes outlined below aren’t easy, our intent in making them is to lessen the impact of the extraordinary financial challenges on our horizon while investing in programs that are in public demand and essential to our students’ overall success. That said, shifts in enrollment are impacting parts of our district disproportionately. Timnath and Wellington’s communities
are growing and may need more space for students in the years to come. Meanwhile, some schools in our community are seeing smaller enrollment numbers each year, which results in reduced funding. Their school budgets are getting smaller, which makes it harder to offer some of the things we value most as a district including extensive mental health and counseling supports as well as specials classes or electives, which can be provided in more expansive ways at other schools with higher enrollment. This is not equitable for students. It’s important to note that we are not seeing declines in
the number of students who have increasingly significant needs, however. If we don’t make changes now, some of our programs that support our students with the highest needs may not exist in the future. PSD also has an estimated $1 billion in capital needs, according to an outside firm hired to assist with long-term facilities planning. This includes approximate costs to replace boilers, roofs, carpet and plumbing; to accommodate student growth in the areas of our district that do continue to grow like Timnath and Wellington; as well as install air conditioning and make other capital improvements. PSD currently has about $800,000 annually to pay for capital needs. After the new
Board of Education settles in following the November 2023 election, Board directors may consider asking voters for their support to address these needs through a future ballot measure. We recognize that we can’t, in good conscience, ask for additional funding without first ensuring that we are maximizing our existing facilities and being good stewards of our current programs.
We acknowledge that the Sept. 26 email was vague and prompted much discussion. It was important to forecast that change is on the horizon while also making time and space to share this news with the staff and parents/guardians at each of the impacted schools before communicating to our greater PSD community. The following changes are what will happen for the 2024-25 school year:
Bringing together Centennial High School and Poudre Community Academy
To ensure PSD’s alternative education programs are sustained well into the future, Centennial High School and Poudre Community Academy will move into the building that currently houses Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, at 1905 Orchard Place in Fort Collins, for the 2024-25 school year. We plan to make renovations at the current building on Orchard Place to accommodate Centennial and PCA students. The staff and students at Centennial and PCA, with support from the district, have been asked to work together to design how alternative education will look and feel in that space. This is not Centennial in one wing and PCA in another. It’s about two school communities coming together as one and building a shared commitment to support our students and their unique needs.
Expanding Polaris Expeditionary Learning School at Olander Elementary School and Blevins Middle School
We are excited to increase access to Expeditionary Learning, which has been in high demand in our community. As part of that, PSD will take the current K-12 school and create two Polaris campuses. Students in grades K-5 will go to Polaris at Olander Elementary, located in west Fort Collins near Spring Canyon Park. Polaris at Blevins, also located in west Fort Collins, will be for students in grades 6-12. Neither will be a school-within-a-school model; students on both campuses will be part of the Expeditionary Learning model. The fundamental idea behind Expeditionary Learning is that students learn more by experiencing the world around them. Expeditionary Learning harnesses the students’ natural passion to learn and helps children develop the curiosity, knowledge, skills, and personal qualities they need for successful adulthood. Olander was selected because its enrollment has declined in recent years and because its proximity to Spring Canyon Park makes it an ideal location to support Expeditionary Learning. Blevins has experienced significant academic growth in the past year; however, only about 40% of the building is currently in use and there is room to increase enrollment. Additionally, both Blevins and Olander are project-based learning schools, and there is some natural alignment between the project-based and expeditionary learning models.
Upgrading and expanding programs that support students with disabilities
We are excited to announce that our Community Connections and Cooper Home programs will move out of their current locations and into the building that currently houses Centennial High School, 330 E. Laurel St. in Fort Collins. PSD is also looking at moving other Transition Pathways programs, including Project Search, SWAP, and CAMPUS, which support some of our older students with disabilities, into this same space. This represents an investment in our students and the programs that support their unique needs. The benefits of this change are numerous and include being closer to Colorado State University, one of the many PSD partners that support students with disabilities, along with a closer proximity to public transportation and work-based learning opportunities in Old Town.
Next steps
PSD is one of the strongest school districts in the state of Colorado because of the people here – our students, our staff, our families, and community members. We recognize that engaging and designing the next steps for each impacted site must happen in collaboration with our students, school-based staff, families and central office staff. These changes are part of the first in a series that will take place in the next couple of years. We anticipate considering additional school consolidations and modifications to attendance areas over the course of the next year. No changes to attendance areas (boundaries) are currently anticipated for the 2024-25 school year. All of this information will be presented at the Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting. To view the Board of Education meeting, click this link to watch the PSD Video on Demand.
We will work as thoughtfully and quickly as possible to address our community's questions, knowing how important it is to share accurate information while we navigate this change together. PSD exists for our students. We remain committed to helping every student experience academic success and graduate from PSD prepared to live and work in our changing world. The strength and dedication to students within PSD is what gives us confidence in our collective ability to navigate these changes.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
Oct. 10, 2023
Dear Poudre School District staff, parents/guardians, and secondary students:
In response to community feedback, we are adjusting our approach to the facility and educational program changes announced on Oct. 5. We still intend to identify changes needed to address declining birth rates and student enrollment, which equates to reduced funding for schools. At Tuesday’s PSD Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Brian Kingsley recommended that the district take an additional year to implement a number of changes for the 2025-26 school year. Our community faces a challenge that we need to address now to ensure the viability of our district in the longer term.
During this additional time, we will partner with our community to thoughtfully navigate the upcoming transitions and to make them as smoothly as possible. Our original intention was to make changes to five school communities in the 2024-25 school year, with modifications to boundaries (school attendance areas) and possible additional school consolidations taking place in the 2025-26 school year. The intent is to work toward implementing all these changes for the 2025-26 school year.
The challenge ahead
Our students have more significant needs than ever, and we are preparing to support them with fewer resources. Demographers project an enrollment decrease of about 10% in the next several years, which equates to a budget cut of roughly $40 million. With mounting facility maintenance and improvement needs nearing an estimated $1 billion and a need for new facilities to support the continuing growth in some areas of our district – such as the towns of Timnath and Wellington – a future PSD Board of Education will need to decide whether to ask voters to support a ballot measure. Inaction puts the long-term sustainability of our entire school district at risk in the future. The difficult but necessary steps we take today keep us aligned with our values of ensuring that students and their families have high-quality educational choices in PSD; growing the programs that are in high demand; and continuing to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and community assets like our facilities.
Read on to learn more about the decision-making process and next steps.
How and why did PSD make this decision?
We heard from many of you, leading up to and at the Oct. 10 PSD Board of Education meeting. Common threads emerged, as students, staff, parents/guardians, and alumni shared their reactions and emotions – all of which are understandable and all of which are human. Taking to heart what those in our communities had to say, we want to listen and engage with members of our community on additional suggestions and possible solutions to deal with this complex challenge.
As with any complex problem, there are competing factors and interests. Our intent is to keep students at the focus of our work and seek win-win solutions – not those where some feel like they have lost for others to win. The changes we make for the greater good of PSD will benefit generations of students to come and, therefore, our entire community.
Next steps: What to expect moving forward
As part of our commitment to deeper community engagement, the district will form a steering committee consisting of students, staff and family representatives. More information about how to become a part of this committee and its role will be shared in the next couple of weeks. The committee will convene listening sessions across the entire district to gather feedback.
Proposed program placement changes
Attendance Area Modifications
In PSD, we exist for our students. We believe in the transformative power of public education to positively impact students’ lives and prepare them to be successful in a changing world. One of the things that our students learn is how to solve real-world problems and adjust as things evolve. We are practicing what we teach and working with our community to address the very real challenges that are affecting our larger community today and for years to come. Navigating change isn’t easy, but we do so better when we do it together.
Understanding that any change can prompt a range and depth of emotion, we are committed to being transparent and communicative throughout the process. Thank you for your continued partnership.
With appreciation,
Superintendent Brian Kingsley and the PSD Leadership Team
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