Editorial: School Closures in the Jefferson Area and Next Steps

If you know any parents with school-aged kids in Jefferson County, you might have seen a flood of emotions Thursday night and into Friday on social media. Jeffco Public Schools made the announcement on Thursday night that they are recommending that sixteen elementary schools be closed at the end of this school year. District leaders attribute the need to close schools based on the decrease of school-aged children over the last 20 years and the high cost of keeping small schools open. In the Jefferson Area, Jeffco Public Schools is recommending the closure of Molholm Elementary School at Harlan and 9th in the Two Creeks Neighborhood of Lakewood.

You can read a full explanation of how the decisions were made and the data behind them here.

For those that might not have followed Jeffco Public Schools closely over the last few years, these decisions were a huge surprise and many students, teachers and families are going through the grieving process as their school community will be closing. There were a number of missed opportunities over the last ten years to make the hard decisions to close schools with declining enrollments, but those decisions were not made. Now school closures are essential so that students get the opportunity to access equitable education opportunities. As part of my work with Edgewater Collective, we’ve been tracking housing costs and school enrollment in the 80214 area since 2014. We began to see a correlation between rising housing costs and declining enrollment in our schools.

The median home sale price in the 80214 area has almost doubled from October 2015 to October 2021. This rapid increase in the price of homes in 80214 also mirrors rising rents in apartments in the 80214 area. Even before the pandemic, school staff were hearing from families who had to leave the area schools because they could no longer afford to live in the area. Some families were able to find housing outside the area in cities like Aurora and Arvada and yet still drive their children to schools in the Edgewater area. 

We’ve seen the growth of new apartment complexes that cater to the desires of a younger demographic moving into the area. Older apartment complexes change the name of their complex and update amenities to change the image of their community. There has been some construction of affordable housing complexes through the great work of West Metro Housing Solutions, but they have been the exception.

Since 2014, all four schools in the 80214 area have seen a student enrollment decline. Jefferson Junior/Senior High School’s enrollment has seen the slowest decline at 14%. Edgewater Elementary has enrollment declines of 36.9%, Lumberg at 32.6% and Molholm has the largest enrollment decline at 46.5%.

These same connections between rising housing costs and declining student enrollment are impacting other areas in east central Jefferson County as well. This is why six of the schools recommended for closure are Title I schools which serve a majority of students whose hard working families struggle to make ends meet financially. These students deserve access to a full range of education and enrichment opportunities at their school, which is hard to achieve at a small school because of the increased funding needs.

So for our area, where do we go from here? How do we ensure thriving schools for each and every student in the 80214 area? Since we launched Edgewater Collective, we have held to the belief that a community has a role in supporting students and ensuring quality, neighborhood schools. It is not solely the responsibility of Jeffco Public Schools.

So here are next steps that I recommend to support our area students, families, teachers and schools:

1. Support the Molholm community throughout this school year and through their transition to the next school home

Students, families, teachers and staff at Molholm Elementary School are struggling as they learn their school home and community will be closing. We need to support them as they grieve and as they go through the process of choosing their next school home. Edgewater Collective is in communication with the principal at Molholm to listen for the best ways that we can help the Molholm community through this process. We are also actively planning monthly Family Fun Nights for students and families from the four area schools so that connections can be made between Molholm students and families with those from Edgewater, Lumberg and Jefferson. We are also working with district staff to ensure that the voices of the Molholm community are heard, valued and acted upon in community meetings organized by the school district this fall.

2. Invest funding in the school choice process this fall

We need to invest new funding into marketing, school tours and events this fall so that families in the area have the opportunity to see the unique programming available at Edgewater Elementary, Lumberg Elementary and Jefferson Junior/Senior High School. School leaders have limited capacity for these efforts so Edgewater Collective is committed to working with school communities to ensure that we invest the money and effort needed to show off our local schools to students and families looking for a school home.

3. Ensure safe and efficient routes from the Two Creeks Neighborhood to Edgewater for Molholm students

Currently, students from the Two Creeks Neighborhood walk across Colfax Avenue to attend Jefferson Junior/Senior High School, but walking across Colfax, and then across 20th Avenue, is not safe. Lakewood is currently in the process of making the West Colfax Safety Project a reality which will create safer routes across Colfax for students and families. We need to think creatively and dream big about new transportation options around Two Creeks and Edgewater that could utilize electric buses to take students to and from schools in Edgewater. These same transportation options could provide access from the WestLine on RTD to businesses along West Colfax and to businesses in Edgewater.

4. Increase enrollment through innovation and partnerships

When Jefferson became a 7th-12th grade junior/senior high school, the Jefferson Plan discussed the possibility of the area becoming an Innovation Zone. This systemic change would allow school leaders to innovate in ways that best fit their school, teachers, students and families. This would also bring in new funding resources to implement the innovations. An innovation zone might be a good systemic change, but there might be other innovation ways to organize and structure our area schools. This is an opportunity to scale up what is working in our schools and improve education opportunities for each of our local students. We need to make changes so that each of our area students is ready for college or career.

5. Utilize the Molholm facility to meet community needs and opportunities

In January, Jeffco Public Schools will start community conversations about how to utilize school buildings that are being closed. The Two Creeks Neighborhood needs community spaces like Molholm in the interior of the neighborhood. How could the Molholm building be utilized well in the future? Could the Molholm facility offer full day preschool for working families from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. if that is what families are requesting? Could portions of the land around Molholm be utilized as workforce or affordable housing for families through partnerships with Metro West Housing? Could the facility become a Family Center with daytime and evening classes for families along with resource navigators? Could the site host recreation opportunities through the City of Lakewood? The possibilities are endless.

In the Edgewater area, many have invested a lot of time and energy supporting our area schools. These investments and partnerships need to increase during this time of transition and opportunity. If you would like to partner with Edgewater Collective throughout this process, let me know (joel@edgewatercollective.org).

Let’s be the area in Jefferson County that shines a light of hope and opportunity during a time that is tough for many students, families and teachers. May the Edgewater area schools be known as diverse and welcoming places where every student, staff member and family is valued and where every student has the resources they need to start on their pathway to college or career success.

Joel Newton

Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.