The Fight for Education Equity in Edgewater Schools

Soon to be Jefferson Junior/Senior High School graduates parade through Edgewater Elementary School.

This article appears in the new Edgewater history book released by the City of Edgewater.

In the late 1970s,, the student demographics in the Edgewater area schools began to change. As the greater Edgewater area diversified, Edgewater schools began to enroll more students who were Latino and came from hardworking families that struggled economically. Due to state legislation around bilingual education passed in 1975, Edgewater Elementary School was the first school in Jefferson County required to start a bilingual-bicultural program because of the number of students who came from a home where another language other than English was spoken. The bilingual program at Edgewater Elementary School began in September 1976 with a new principal, Bill Jolly. 

By the 1990s, the number of students who received free or reduced lunch rates were over 35% at both Edgewater Elementary and Lumberg Elementary. All the schools that fed into Jefferson High School had a high percentage of students who scored well below average on standardized tests. In 1996, Governor Romer signed the Public Schools of Choice Act into law which made school districts allow all families to enroll their children across district lines and school boundaries. School choice continued to change the demographics of schools in the Edgewater area as families chose to send their children to school outside the neighborhood. 

In 1996, a for-profit, private education company, the Edison Project, proposed taking over management of seven struggling schools in east central Jefferson County including Edgewater Elementary, Lumberg Elementary, and Jefferson High School. The Edison Project ran other schools across the country and promised increased achievement through a longer school day, computer-aided learning, a longer school year, and more parent volunteers. Parents and teachers at Edgewater Elementary and Jefferson High School voted down the takeover. Lumberg was ready to move forward. In June 1996, the Jeffco School Board approved a contract with Edison to begin operating at Lumberg Elementary with the 1997-1998 school year if they could get 2/3 of the children in the area to register. By September, the Jeffco School Board voted 5-0 to stop the contract because the registrations fell short by forty students.

By 2011, over 90% of the students at Edgewater, Lumberg, and Jefferson received free or reduced lunch rates and over 80% of students identified as Latino. Edgewater Elementary and Lumberg Elementary had one-way dual language programs where students who grew up in homes where Spanish was spoken could become bilingual in English and Spanish. Jeffco Public School provided investments in iPads for each student at Edgewater, Lumberg, and Jefferson to enhance their learning in 2013. In 2015, district officials and principals released the Jefferson Plan with the hopes that a strategic focus on professional learning and development for teachers as well as new programs for students would increase student achievement and growth. The Jefferson Plan also included transitioning Jefferson High School to a 7th-12th grade school under a new name, Jefferson Junior/Senior High School. The Jefferson Plan brought increased graduation rates at Jefferson and signs of growth at the elementary schools. Yet this growth was not sustained and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic further impacted student learning. 

In the fall of 2022, Jeffco Public Schools announced the closure of 16 schools, including Molholm Elementary just south of Edgewater, due to a drop of enrollment across the district. With increased home prices and rent rates in the Edgewater area, enrollment at Edgewater Elementary and Lumberg Elementary dropped in half from 2012-2022. The City of Edgewater, Edgewater Collective, and Jeffco Public Schools came together in the spring of 2023 to study area demographics and begin community listening sessions with the goal of releasing a plan to re-envision education in the Edgewater area for the next decade. District officials told the community that it was time to follow through on promises of a great education for Edgewater area students.

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.