Rightsizing

 

 

Pueblo School District 60 is currently evaluating the possibility of rightsizing our district to better align with current enrollment and resources. Your feedback is essential to help us make informed, thoughtful decisions that will serve the best interests of our students, families, and community.

Your responses will play a vital role in ensuring that we understand the full impact on our schools, students, and neighborhoods. 

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Your voice matters as we work together to shape the future of education in our district.

Rightsizing Community Feedback Survey

Additional Rightsizing Data

Why is rightsizing needed?

In District 60, rightsizing is the process of restructuring our district to make it more efficient in order to better serve our students. Rightsizing actions may take a variety of approaches, including redesigning grade configurations, co-locating two schools onto a single campus, merging schools, or potentially closing underutilized schools. On average, D60 schools are only being used at about 66% capacity, and enrollment in D60 has declined over time. While a few schools are at or above capacity, most are below. As our district serves a diverse student population, the unique needs of our students may not be met in the currently configured and aging schools, nor with the traditional instructional programs for which these buildings were designed and built.

Pueblo District 60 has limited funds to maintain these aging, underutilized buildings, which directly impacts the district’s ability to use available resources to prioritize increased pay and benefits in order to attract and retain the highest quality staff. 

With all this in mind, we are beginning a rightsizing process with our community with the goal of finalizing recommendations to present to the D60 Board of Education in October of 2025.

Your voice is critical as we begin discussing a rightsizing plan

Together, we will work to develop potential ideas for rightsizing and create a deliberate, collaborative, thoughtful plan that makes sense for our community and ensures a bright and sustainable future for our students, the district, and for the broader Pueblo community.

That’s why we are beginning the brainstorming process in March, nearly a year and a half before any implementation would take place and only after a decision by the Board of Education.

To accommodate as many stakeholders as possible, we will offer a wide variety of engagement opportunities for all members of our community, including students, staff, families, businesses, and community partners. We need all voices in order to create a solid plan that will positively impact many generations well into the future.

Our schools that serve elementary and middle grades, along with those schools that offer  alternative learning options, have been organized into community groups based on input from school and district leaders and the schools’ proximity to each other.  Members of each grouped community will learn more about the unique strengths and challenges of each school within the group, and will work together to brainstorm potential rightsizing solutions. During this initial brainstorming phase, multiple ideas will be explored before they are reviewed by a steering committee,  fine-tuned, sent back to the community for review and input, and finally presented as solid recommendations to the D60 school board. At that time, we will speak to our Board as one team, with one voice.

Our rightsizing plan will strengthen educational opportunities, enhance innovative programs, optimize budgetary resources, and reduce our reliance on aging facilities. This rightsizing process will provide our D60 community a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine our schools, ensuring that we become that destination, high-performing district that inspires our community and that lays the foundation for a strong City of Pueblo long into our future.

Rightsizing options

• There are a number of available options:
• Redesign - different grade configuration(s) or programming in schools to allow for innovative instructional programming
• Co-location - two schools within one school building
• Merging - combining one or more schools and/or programs together and/or moving programs among schools to merge like programming
• Consolidation/Closure - closing one or more schools in a group by consolidating programming and students
• No action - for specific schools

With the exception of our high schools, which will not be part of the discussion, all elementary, K-8, and middle schools will be considered in the development of a rightsizing plan.

General Timeline

• Community and stakeholder input beginning in March and continuing through early Fall 2025
• Recommendations to the Board of Education in October 2025
• Planning for rightsizing implementation to begin in the 2026-2027 school year. 

Community Group Meetings, Round 1

March 3, 5:30-7 p.m. at Central High School. Group 1: Bessemer Academy, Columbian, Minnequa, Heritage, Corwin
March 4, 5:30-7 p.m. at East. Group 2: Haaff, Franklin, Belmont, Heaton
March 10, 5:30-7 p.m. at South. Group 3: South Park, Highland Park, Beulah Heights
March 12, 5:30-7 p.m. at South. Group 4: D60 Online, Dutch Clark Digital/Paragon, Goodnight, Sunset Park, Pueblo Academy of Arts
March 17, 5:30-7 p.m. at East. Group 5: Risley, Bradford, Park View, Fountain, Baca
March 18, 5:30-7 p.m. at Centennial. Group 6: Irving, Nettie S. Freed, Morton