Littleton 6 School District: LPS BOE Approves Location For New Elementary School For East And Ralph Moody Communities

Press release from Littleton 6 School District:

03.31.21

LPS Board of Education approves Ralph Moody Elementary School campus as location of the new elementary school for the East and Ralph Moody communities

During a special meeting Tuesday, March 30, 2021, the Littleton Public Schools Board of Education took action on the location of the new elementary school for the combined East Elementary and Ralph Moody Elementary communities. In a 5-0 vote, the Board chose the Ralph Moody campus as the site of the new school. The Long Range Planning Committee, which had been charged by the Board to vet and validate administration’s recommendation to build on the Ralph Moody campus, agreed with administration’s recommendation after taking into consideration all of the data collected over the past three years related to facilities and boundaries as well as parent, staff, and community feedback gathered over the past three months.

Board members noted the challenge of trying to predict demographic shifts, school-age population changes, and property value changes that far into the future. The City of Littleton shared its predictions that the neighborhoods nearest to Broadway and Littleton Boulevard (in the East Elementary catchment), are likely to be redeveloped with more commercial and retail space as the Broadway corridor is redeveloped. There are no guarantees that those changes will include affordable housing. The city doesn’t expect much change in neighborhoods further away from Broadway and Littleton Boulevard. The Board took into account the likely redevelopment in the next decade or two of the Broadway and Littleton Boulevard area into more commercial and retail space while the Ralph Moody Elementary neighborhood is predicted to experience little change and will remain a single family home residential neighborhood. New schools are built to serve a community for at least 70 years.

Board members said their decision also was focused on Ralph Moody’s more central location within the new combined East/Ralph Moody catchment as well as student safety, as Ralph Moody is further away from major thoroughfares and is close to an evacuation site. The Long Range Planning Committee had listed both as important reasons for building at Ralph Moody.

Another important factor is the change in the way English Language Development (ELD) services will be delivered in the future. For years, East was a program school for English Learners, which meant students were offered the option to be transported to East to receive direct ELD services. Currently, 40 percent of the students receiving ELD services at East actually live in the East catchment. While other multilingual families choose to open enroll at East, beginning next fall, ELD services will be provided in all elementary schools. This will allow students to stay in their neighborhood schools while also receiving support for their language needs. All students who need English Language Development support at the new East/Ralph Moody school will receive those services.

Board members thanked members of the Long Range Planning Committee for their multi-year commitment to LPS and for providing their expertise once again these past few months. They also thanked the East and Ralph Moody staff members, parents, and community members for attending the meetings and telling their stories. The feedback to the Board was very impactful.

“It was important for the Board to make a decision on the location of this new school. Now that we’ve done that, district and school leaders can make a plan for how to mediate the impacts of this decision,” said Board President Jack Reutzel. “We are thankful for all of the parents, staff and community members who shared their feedback with us these past few months. Parents have an absolute love for their schools. We heard a lot about equity, and we discovered the questions, concerns, needs and hopes both the East and Ralph Moody communities have for their new school moving forward. I have the utmost confidence in the great work that will happen over the next few years to bring the East and Ralph Moody students, staff, and families together and to ensure we combine the assets of each community to best serve this new school.”

Board members expressed their strong support to turn East Elementary School into a community center designed in partnership with the East community. They urged district and school leaders to develop a plan in the coming months to bring together East parents, community immigrants, various community organizations, and other interested parties to start visioning what a community center could include and what kinds of partnerships would be the most beneficial. While a community center is two years away, the district is already thinking about how to best bring East parents and other stakeholders to the table. A framework will be developed by early next fall.

Board members also acknowledged how important it is to celebrate the opportunity to build a third new elementary school and to place that school in the East/Ralph Moody community, as both neighborhoods will benefit greatly from a new, larger school.

School and parent leaders are eager to bring the two schools together as soon as possible to form a new school community. Parents will be invited as partners to brainstorm ways beyond traditional structures such as PTO, accountability committees, etc. to share ideas, needs, hopes, and a vision moving forward. It is important that all voices and perspectives be shared, heard, and understood.

The principals at East and Ralph Moody and district leadership will provide outreach opportunities to build, cultivate, and sustain relationships. Support services, such as a family liaison position, interpretation and translation services will continue. There will be many parent leadership opportunities as this work moves forward.

Construction on the new school will begin in the summer of 2022, and the school will open in the fall of 2023. The school will cost $35–38 million and will be built using 2018 premium bond dollars. It will follow the same design as the new Dr. Justina Ford Elementary School. Using an existing design significantly reduces construction time and design costs. It will be a four-round school (four classes at each grade level) that could serve 600+ students. Larger schools allow for funding for robust staffing, including small group instruction, intervention, enrichment, and other support services - all of which provide students with the people and programs to best support them. For example, an elementary school with enrollment of 200 students costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more every year to operate than does an elementary school with an enrollment of 600 students.

The feedback and decision-making process
In December 2019 as part of its multi-year study of facilities and boundaries, the Long Range Planning Committee recommended the Board consider combining the East and Ralph Moody school communities into one new school. Doing so would further the vision of replacing old, failing buildings with new ones while combining two small elementary schools into a larger school that better meets student needs. About a year later, the Board asked administration for recommendations to address the district’s ongoing enrollment issues as a whole. Those recommendations were presented to the Board January 6, 2021.

The Board then charged the Long Range Planning Committee with vetting and validating administration’s recommendations. In early February, the Committee held a virtual town hall for the East and Ralph Moody communities with more than 100 live viewers and more than 100 questions submitted. The Committee received feedback on the location and design of the school, the location of students during construction, the formation of a new school community, the impact to the East community and culture should the school be built at Ralph Moody, equity issues, and the impact to teachers, school staff, preschool and school age child care.

On February 25, the Long Range Planning Committee presented its findings to the Board. The Committee agreed with administration’s recommendation to build the new school on the Ralph Moody campus. Board members then held special meetings March 4 and March 10 at East and Ralph Moody, respectively, to hear additional community commentary in person. About 40 people attended each event. Both events were also live streamed. The Board then asked administration for additional information including enrollment forecasts and special education services. The Board also received dozens of emails from parents and community members on all sides of the issues. The Board had a discussion during its regularly scheduled meeting March 11, 2021 before coming to a decision March 30.

Combining East and Ralph Moody into one school community is part of a larger plan to address decades of enrollment issues. Over the past 15 years or so, LPS enrollment has declined by about 3,000 students, usually at the rate of 75 to 100 students per year. The Long Range Planning Committee also conducted an in-depth review of enrollment patterns across the district as part of its work over the last three years regarding the need to replace aging facilities over time and the resulting boundary changes. The data tells us that enrollment, particularly at the elementary level, continues to decline within the district. This year alone due to the pandemic, LPS is down an additional 700 students from its pre-pandemic projections.

The plan moves LPS from having 13 elementary schools – several of which will be one- or two-round schools next fall – to having 10 elementary schools by the fall of 2023. Most schools would be more robust and efficient three- or four-round elementary schools.

Next Steps

At its March 30 meeting, the Board also heard the Committee’s recommendations to close Twain Elementary School and Peabody Elementary school at the end of the 2021–2022 school year. The Board will likely take action on these recommendations at their regularly scheduled meeting on April 8, 2021. Should the Board vote to accept these recommendations, plans will move forward to relocate Ralph Moody Elementary students to the Twain facility for the 2022–2023 school year only while the new school is built on the Ralph Moody campus.
District and school leaders and teachers will begin meeting with parents from East and Ralph Moody to form a new school community while addressing equity issues. LPS will work closely with the East community to develop creative solutions to transportation challenges.
In the coming months, district and school leaders will develop a plan to bring together East and Ralph Moody families, community partners, various community organizations, and other interested parties to start creating a vision for what a community center could include and what kinds of partnerships would be the most beneficial. Administration will give the Board an update on the plan in the fall.