Woodland Park RE-2 officials plan to move middle schoolers to high school in fall
An email sent from Woodland Park School District RE-2 administrators to parents briefly announcing a new facilities plan is causing concern for some.
In order to better manage its school buildings that have been experiencing shrinking enrollment, administrators said they want to “improve the efficiency of building usage” by moving all students at the middle school, at 600 E. Kelley’s Road, to the high school.
Beginning in the fall, seventh and eighth grade students will attend classes at the district’s high school, which is a little over a mile away from the middle school, according to the Friday email.
And Merit Academy, a charter school that currently occupies a portion of the middle school, reportedly will lease the entire building next academic year.
Social media commenters say they think mixing younger students with older students at the high school isn’t a good idea.
Last year, for the first time, sixth graders were removed from the middle school and distributed among RE-2’s three elementary schools. That opened up more space for Merit Academy to rent at the middle school this school year.
Dozens of students protested that decision on March 2, 2023.
But the high school has a history of accommodating many grade levels, as do many charter schools in the region. Woodland Park High School previously served seventh through 12th graders, spokeswoman Lindsey Prahl said in a letter sent to media on Monday.
The school district is “confident this merger will provide its seventh and eighth graders with several new academic and extracurricular opportunities,” she said.
“Recognizing the importance of such decisions, WPSD reassures families that this process is being approached with utmost care and consideration for all students’ educational experiences and safety.”
Merit Academy grew from 331 students in the 2022-23 academic year to 436 students this school year, according to Colorado Department of Education enrollment data released last week.
Woodland Park Middle School shrank from 391 students in 2022-23 to 255 students this year, and the high school saw a loss of 38 students this year, for a total of 534.
The high school had 601 students in the fall of 2021, statistics show.
Overall, enrollment in RE-2 has dropped by more than 15% in the past five years, and districtwide declined by 107 students this school year, for a total district enrollment of 2,015, according the state education department.
The district recently announced in a press release that Cindy Gannon has been named the interim principal at Woodland Park High School. The release made no mention about circumstances surrounding the departure of former principal Kevin Burr.
Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
Dozens of students staged a protest the morning of March 2, 2023, at the entrance of the Woodland Park Middle School, after administrators announced sixth graders would be distributed among the district’s three elementary schools.