FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Poudre School District's plan to close and merge schools is now just a few weeks away from a vote. But the steering committee's latest recommendations on which schools to close haven't yet been released.
That's leaving parents like Kristin Heineman worried the district is moving forward on closing schools too quickly.
"My kids attend Lopez Elementary which is just down the street here," Heineman said.
Heineman said both she and her children -- a first-grader and a preschooler -- love the school. Now, with closures and mergers looming, she worries about what's next for her kids.
"It's terrifying," Heineman said. "So yeah, freaking out that Lopez might be on the chopping block."
After a massive backlash to Poudre's plan for consolidation last fall, the district created a community committee to look at ways to shutter schools and provide recommendations to the school board.
The district has stressed these closures are needed because of budget shortfalls and declining enrollment within Poudre Schools. Poudre Schools was unable to speak with 9NEWS Tuesday for an interview about the latest consolidation plans.
Heineman said she and other parents have emailed questions and filed Colorado Open Records Act requests with Poudre in an effort to get more clarity and information on these issues. She said the responses they're getting back haven't helped provide answers.
"I've been emailing the steering committee and the board and I'm sure they're inundated with emails all the time, but I'm just kind of getting canned responses without any specific answers to specific questions that I've asked, which is also very frustrating. And again, that lack of transparency is hard," Heineman said.
The committee put out its first round of possible school closures in March.
“Lopez was on the first -- well a couple of the first-round scenarios that the steering committee moved forward," Heineman said. "Which was disappointing because I felt like that really started to pit Lopez against other schools and other members of our community unnecessarily."
The next round of possible closures was originally set to be released on Tuesday. That's now been delayed until Friday.
That will leave just one month until the school board is expected to vote on a final consolidation plan for the district based on recommendations the community hasn't yet seen.
"We have less than a month before big decisions are made and the entire community is going to be impacted," Heineman said. "That just seems rushed and reckless."
With so much uncertainty and so few answers, Heineman said she and many other Poudre parents are angry, frustrated and scared.
Parents have shown up to listening sessions by the hundreds, asked questions, and Heineman said she still feels like the district won't slow down long enough to fully vet the impacts of these consolidation plans.
"I was hopeful when I went to the board meeting and it seemed to be very loud and clear that the community was like 'let's slow this down.' But then it seemed to fall on deaf ears and that was very frustrating," Heineman said.
Poudre's school board is set to vote on a consolidation plan for schools during its June 11 board meeting. Those changes will take effect by the 2025-26 school year, a timeline the district has referred to as "aggressive" but necessary.
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