Bus pick-ups and drop-offs, a new start time and new channels of communication were among the updates Colorado Springs District 11 provided to Jenkins Middle School families Thursday night as they prepare to exit the school next week.

For the second in a series of community meetings, D-11 superintendent Michael Gaal took to the stage of Doherty High School’s auditorium to speak directly to those in attendance, but not without an admission first — that was loud and clear.

“The district has failed the people of Jenkins,” he said. “I am your superintendent. I am ultimately accountable for that failure. Our goal here tonight is to start to begin to regain your trust.”

The failure refers to when and how families and staff received the news that Jenkins was on the verge of closing earlier this week.

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Monday, multiple local news outlets reported that the school could close if it didn’t pass a safety inspection by the end of the week. This was followed by a message from the D-11 administration that the school would close next week after being deemed unsafe by the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

It was originally announced that Jenkins’ sixth-grade students would relocate to Russell Middle School and its seventh- and eighth-grade students to Doherty High School starting Jan. 23.

This start was determined by the upcoming holiday weekend, the incoming cold front and significant time for relocation and orientation. This has since been pushed back one day with Thursday now acting as an orientation day for students and staff before classes resume on Friday.

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Thursday evening will also have orientation nights for parents to answer any more questions they have ahead of the new start time.

Gaal noted that the start date could get pushed back further if the weather warrants a snow day next week.

“We don’t want staff or family driving around because of this dislocation of our Jenkins families. So please, please remain safe this weekend,” he said.

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Russell and Doherty students will still have their regularly scheduled classes Jan. 23.

The district also provided updates on bus routes for the rest of the year. Students who walked to Jenkins will have to arrive at the school’s bus loop before 8:30 a.m. to be taken to their new school and will be dropped off there after school. Those who take the bus will continue to do so on slightly adjusted routes to their new location.  

The school’s musical productions will take place at Palmer High School while basketball practice will take at Doherty in the morning. All basketball games will be away games.  

Breakfast, lunch and snacks will still be served at dedicated locations in the schools separate from Doherty and Russell’s student bodies. Dedicated school entrances and parking lots will also be for each student body.

D-11 representatives also introduced a new online portal and additional resources that will update parents and staff daily with further relocation details. Volunteer sign-ups have also started for parents to assist in the process.

Rather than an open Q&A portion with Gaal and other representatives answering questions from the audience, information booths were held outside the auditorium for parents with specific questions concerning transportation, extracurricular activities and other adjustments each grade will need to make.

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Some attendees felt that this approach was still inadequate for community members who wanted to communicate directly with leadership.

“This is not a community meeting,” Jenkins parents Stephanie Miles said following the updates and a brief exchange with Gaal and board President Parth Melpakam.

“They took away our (the audience’s) chance to speak to them directly and we still have a lot of concerns. This has disrupted our lives and we feel slighted by how everything has gone.”

During a special board meeting the night before, Miles’ husband James was among the community members who voiced concerns over the district’s handling of the Jenkins situation ahead of the board approving $2.5 million in funding for the Colorado Springs School of Technology, a new innovation zone, which is slated to open next fall.

The board postponed the vote to a later date.

D-11 board Vice President Jill Haffley said this was decided so the district could focus on addressing Jenkins while also noting that the innovation zone is still “on the table” this year and that the funding to address both buildings has always been separate.

“We have the money for CSST over here and we’ve had the money for Jenkins over here,” she said.

Jenkins was one of the schools originally identified for “priority repairs” in D-11’s facilities master plan in 2021 and the district had roughly $10 million earmarked for repairs scheduled in 2027. Following the safety inspection of by CSFD on Dec. 18, it was found that the building “had reached a critical point requiring immediate attention” which pushed the repairs forward.

The Colorado Springs School of Technology was approved by D-11’s board in February 2024 and by the State Board of Education in April of the same year. The request to transfer $2.5 million from the district’s capital reserve fund toward renovating space for the innovation zone was approved by Gaal on Jan. 10.

It’s not yet known what the total cost of repairing will be, but the district will have a better idea after the third-party analysis of the building is complete, which Haffley said could come as soon as next week.

In the meantime, the district will continue to provide updates to families and provide assistance ahead of the relocation, but Miles said the entire process has been a struggle.  

“I have to take off work just to make it to the orientation,” she said.

One more community information night with updated information is scheduled for Wednesday.