D-11 closer to closing, repurposing school buildings

Eight elementary schools in Colorado Springs School District 11 would be shuttered or repurposed by fall under draft recommendations released Monday.

In subsequent years, Wasson High School would be closed or converted to a smaller arts and math/science magnet school with no designated attendance area. Irving Middle School also would be closed.

The sweeping plan also would realign programs, create three kindergarten to eighth grade schools with special programs and redraw boundaries to better serve the district's 28,000 students, said Mike Poore, deputy superintendent and chairman of the utilization steering committee.

"It is big and bold," Poore said of the plan. "If you'd told me in November this is where we'd end up, I'd never have fathomed it."

The latest plan, called draft No. 17, details proposed changes through August 2011 and calls for a re-evaluation of the progress. The D-11 Board of Education will take up the draft report at a work session at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Tesla Educational Opportunity Center. (See below for further information on meetings.)

"The board could say, ‘Stop; we want you to slow down,'" Poore said. "The board could ask us to give consideration to amending some parts or creating better timelines. We'll take their suggestions for final draft."

The final draft will be the subject of a public hearing on Feb. 11 at Coronado High School. The board is scheduled to vote on the recommendations at its regular meeting on Feb. 25.

Here are some of the main changes outlined in the report:

SCHOOLS TO BE CLOSED OR REPURPOSED THIS FALL

-- Close Buena Vista and Whittier elementary schools. Take those students living in the neighborhood, plus those from Washington Elementary, and put them at West Middle School, which would begin conversion to a kindergarten to eighth-grade program.

Whittier's building could be used by a charter school; the district would study the feasibility of moving the Intergenerational Center, now at West, to Buena Vista.

-- Washington Elementary would house a magnet school for the Montessori program and would have no designated neighborhood attendance area. The Montessori program is now at Buena Vista.

-- Close Ivywild Elementary; move students to Hunt and Midland elementary schools.

-- Move Pike Elementary students to Bristol and Jackson elementary schools and use the Pike building for the Bijou Alternative School.

-- Close Adams Elementary and move students to Hunt; consider Adams for a charter school.

-- Close Jefferson Elementary and move the hearing-impaired program to Stratton Elementary; move other students to Audubon, Queen Palmer and Twain elementary schools. Jefferson could be used for adult education programs.

-- Close Longfellow Elementary and move students to Grant, Penrose, Audubon and Twain elementary schools. Longfellow could house a tuition-based preschool program.

Down the road

• Convert three schools - West and North middle schools and Trailblazer Elementary - to K-8 magnet programs in 2010, with planning to begin now. West, which could get a name change, would become a magnet for the SAIL program, which offers project-based instruction for gifted students in the fourth grade and up. The fourth- and fifth-grade program now at Stratton would relocate to West. The SAIL program at Fremont Elementary would move to Madison.

North would convert to a K-8 International Baccalaureate-only school, with no neighborhood attendance area. Its neighborhood students would attend Mann or Galileo middle schools. The elementary IB program now at Midland would go to North.

Trailblazer would develop a K-8 program with an emphasis on visual arts and foreign languages.

• Realign programs at Wasson High School. Under one scenario, Wasson would become a performing arts and math/science magnet school with no designated attendance area. It would have 700 to 800 students, and a portion of the building could be used for some administrative functions or community groups. A second option calls for closing the school and redistributing the students to the district's four other high schools.

In January 2010, the district would propose boundary changes for the high schools and for the northeast portion of the district to take effect the following fall.

Over the next three years the district also would align its performing arts programs with the east-side strand at Freedom Elementary, Russell Middle School and Wasson High School, and the west-side strand at Bristol Elementary, Holmes Middle School and Coronado High School.

The final action recommended in the report is the closure of Irving Middle School in August 2011, when Emerson Middle School is expected to be ramped up to three grade levels as a space and technology magnet school.

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Contact the Writer: 636-0251 or sue.mcmillin@gazette.com 

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PUBLIC MEETINGS

6 p.m. Wednesday: D-11 work session to consider draft recommendations. Public comment is not taken at work sessions but the meeting is open and will be televised live on Channel 16. The meeting is at the Tesla Educational Opportunity Center, 2560 International Circle.

Feb. 11 at Coronado High School, 1590 W. Fillmore St.: Public hearing on school utilization recommendations and board considers recommendation as non-action item.

Feb. 25: Regular board meeting at Tesla, action on recommendations expected.

Online > In depth

To read the latest draft on the school utilization reports, go to www.d11.org/Utilization