Schools in grand valley Closing

For the past several weeks Mesa County Valley School District 51 has been attempting to create a solution for declining student enrollment. The District has decided it would be best to close down three schools, Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School, Orchard Avenue Elementary School, and East Middle School. The closures are a result of numerous issues, including low enrollment, future growth, adjacency to schools with more space, building conditions, pedestrian viability, additional transportation requirements, the logic of post-change boundaries, and budgetary impacts on the level of service. The District’s enrollment has dropped by almost 1,300 students over the past four years. The closures would go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year. Nancy McFarlin is an English teacher here at Palisade. She has been teaching for 24 years, 15 of which were at East Middle School. “I think that unfortunately, we have to be fiscally responsible because we have buildings that are not filled with kids and in order to make the funds appropriate we need to fill those buildings with something. As long as we can fill teachers and no one loses their jobs and it's what is best for kids, then I think closing down the school could be a good idea.” She states. An interesting area within the closure of these schools is the Challenge Program run by Tina Sleigh, currently located at East Middle School. The Program accepts 28 students per class, allowing those students to take higher level classes and present students with higher level opportunities. With East closing, what happens to that Challenge program has been up in the air. “There's all kinds of rumors floating around, but It sounds like the Challenge Program will just be repositioned and placed somewhere else. It will remain intact and have the same tenants and criteria with the same people running it, but it will be housed in a different building.” McFarlin says. As more decisions are made updates will be produced.