Poudre school board keeps Blevins Middle School open, with five-year closure protection

The Poudre School District Board of Education voted Thursday to remove Blevins Middle School from its closure list, so it will stay open past July 1, 2027, and barred the school from being named in any closure recommendation for five years.

Under the approved conditions, Blevins may not be named or included in a recommendation for closure for five years from the date of the vote. Havelda's language gives January 2031 as an example of a closure date and says such a closure would not take effect until the 2032-33 school year.

The district must also earmark $250,000 a year for the next two school years for Blevins, from general fund money freed up through 4A Small School Support. The money is for marketing to increase enrollment and to address licensed and unlicensed staffing needs.

Staff told the board the $250,000 would be carved out of the $4 million small-neighborhood-school allocation, so the other schools would take a small reduction. Vice President Kevin Havelda, who proposed the conditions, said the $250,000 is 6.25% of that $4 million fund, leaving the other 94% available to other schools.

The conditions also require a Blevins Advisory Committee of Blevins community family members and staff. It will meet with district staff once every two months for the five years, advise the district on enrollment efforts and seek district support and resources, and a school board director may serve as its liaison.

Director Ozlem Gurkan said the district has approximately 1,509 students in kindergarten and 1,957 in fifth grade, a difference of 448 students, and could have nearly 500 fewer students in five years without major changes or migration to Fort Collins. "That means the pipeline is shrinking," Gurkan said.

A staff member told the board that state demographer reports project an annual 2% decline in enrollment until at least 2031, with a change in direction dependent on net migration to the area. Gurkan said the district's projections have a 1% margin of error and that even 300 or 350 students would be too few for a middle school.

Havelda said the school had been on a strong growth trajectory under new leadership but that being named for closure three years earlier had harmed its enrollment. A board member described the school's strategic plan as clear and urged the board to let it continue: "It's very clear, it's a very intentional plan that includes both the strategy and the student experience," the member said.

Another board member called the five-year period, the proposed funding and the advisory committee reasonable support for Blevins given its circumstances.

Fairness to other schools was the main concern. Havelda said the conditions were equitable for Blevins but unfair to other schools, and that the board would have to weigh the costs to the rest of the district. "It is not fair to other schools," Havelda said.

A staff member asked how Blevins-specific criteria would apply to other schools as enrollment declines, noting that the district has 49 traditional schools. The staff member said district employees had asked the board not to create conditions that pit them against one another, and warned that schools outside the current discussion might be looking for ways to protect themselves.

A board member said the earlier vote shaped the outcome. The member said Blevins would be open had the earlier vote gone the other way, acknowledged confusion about the process and argued the school should not be penalized for that vote.

Havelda said he voted Oct. 27 to close Blevins and still believes that vote was right based on the circumstances before the board at the time.

Havelda said a future board could undo the conditions by majority vote. He said the five-year restriction does not remove the board's ultimate authority to make decisions about Blevins.