(PUEBLO, Colo.) — Pueblo School District 60 (D60) will hold a series of community meetings to discuss “rightsizing” the district due to low enrollment.
According to a spokesperson, the district has been experiencing a continued decline in enrollment, resulting in “significantly underutilized” school buildings. On average, D60 said buildings are only at 66% of their total capacity for enrollment, which causes already limited resources to be spread across schools instead of allowing the district to pool resources to better serve students.
Additionally, the district said the age of buildings and lack of predictable revenue have compounded budgetary implications of declining enrollment.
“Our District is undertaking a deliberate and collaborative process to reimagine its schools as the district rightsizes to its current and projected enrollment, allowing the district to better serve its students and community far into the future, fulfilling the district’s vision of becoming a high-performing destination district that inspires community confidence,” said D60.
The district said the rightsizing process will include community sessions that will provide input and potential ideas to a Superintendent’s Advisory Committee comprised of representative members of all stakeholder groups. The goal is to present a final recommendation to the D60 Board of Education in early October 2025 for approval.
Upon approval, the district said it will then begin the planning and implementation phase, with slated implementation during the 2026-2027 school year.
D60 has planned a series of community brainstorming sessions to begin the process. For these sessions, all families, staff, and community members are invited to attend and provide grassroots input on potential ideas for consideration.
The schedule for the initial school grouping community brainstorming sessions is below:
March 3, 5:30-7 p.m. at Central High School. Group 1: Bessemer Academy, Columbian, Minnequa, Heritage, Corwin
March 4, 5:30-7 p.m. at East. Group 2: Haaff, Franklin, Belmont, Heaton
March 10, 5:30-7 p.m. at South. Group 3: South Park, Highland Park, Beulah Heights
March 12, 5:30-7 p.m. at South. Group 4: D60 Online, Dutch Clark Digital/Paragon, Goodnight, Sunset Park, Pueblo Academy of Arts
March 17, 5:30-7 p.m. at East. Group 5: Risley, Bradford, Park View, Fountain, Baca
March 18, 5:30-7 p.m. at Centennial. Group 6: Irving, Nettie S. Freed, Morton
The sessions will include brainstorming around considerations to redesign schools and existing grade level structures, co-locate schools into the same facility, merge and/or relocate programs, and/or consolidate/close schools, all with the intent to enhance educational opportunities and programs for the district’s students.
