LARIMER COUNTY — This time of year, Red Feather Lakes Elementary School is surrounded by expansive mountain views dotted with bright yellow aspen trees as the seasons change.
But families who attend the small mountain school are bracing for a different kind of change — the potential closure of the school parents like Maggie Treadway consider the "heart of the community."
"When I found out that we were one of the schools that could get closed down, I was just devastated and really kind of in shock," said Treadway, who has two young boys attending Red Feather Lakes Elementary School.
On Sept. 25, Poudre School District (PSD) announced the list of schools recommended for closure or consolidation by the Comprehensive Planning Committee (CPC), which Superintendent Brian Kingsley explained as a group of 25 community members. The proposal is to close nine PSD schools and consolidate two by the fall of the 2027-2028 school year.
"We believe that we can be even better, we can do more, and do it better in fewer schools, because we can concentrate our resources and make sure every student has access to everything that they deserve," Kingsley told the community.
"For several years, enrollment in this district has been declining, and much of the strain that decline has placed on our system has been carried quietly behind classroom doors," Kingsley said during the announcement. "We have already been consolidating for years. We've been consolidating people, cutting millions of dollars from our budget, and eliminating hundreds of positions. Every year that we have protected buildings, we have done it by asking teachers and staff to do more with less, that is not a sustainable way to support the people who teach our students."
The summary of the proposal shows that closing three mountain schools — Red Feather Lakes, Stove Prairie, and Livermore Elementary Schools — could decrease the overall day-to-day operation costs for the district by $2.12 million.
According to the recommendation, enrollment in the three mountain schools totaled to 109 students during the 2021-2022 school year. The population of those three schools reached a low of 78 students in the 2025-2026 school year, which the CPC found was a net decline of 31 students, or 28.4% over the 5-year period.
Students from the three mountain schools would be assigned to Cache La Poudre Elementary School in La Porte. The projected transportation time for current Red Feather Lakes Elementary School students shows a 59 minute maximum bus ride to the La Porte school.
“It's really just not geographically comparable to the other schools that are being proposed for closure," said Treadway.
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Currently, Treadway estimated her children are on the bus for roughly 15 to 20 minutes when commuting to Red Feather Lakes Elementary School. She is concerned about the sharp increase in the amount of time it would take to get to Cache La Poudre Elementary School.
"Logistically, these kids would be getting up at 4:30 a.m. to have an hour to get ready for school, leaving the house at 5:30 a.m. and then being on the bus for another hour. And then those kids are going to be asked to sit in class and learn," Treadway said. "They're not going to have the attention span to do something like that, and that's going to impact their academic performance. That's going to impact their self-esteem."
In addition, Treadway wondered what would happen when a snowstorm blows through the winding mountain roads.
“When there's heavy snowfall here in the mountains and heavy winds here in the mountains, they just cancel the mountain routes for transportation, and so the mountain kids just don't have class that day," Treadway said. "Everybody who lives in the city, they just go on without them, and then when our mountain kids come back, they're just behind a day at no fault of their own."
The CPC noted that mountain school students would have more programs offered to them by attending Cache La Poudre Elementary School, but Treadway believes there would still be obstacles.
“There are school programs available in Fort Collins that are not available in the mountain schools up here. But, just because they exist in Fort Collins doesn't make them accessible to families up here. Just logistically, we're not going to be able to get to the same programs that other families are," Treadway said.
Treadway said the closure of Red Feather Lakes Elementary School would be a blow to the rural community she and her family call home.
"Rural areas in Colorado are an underserved population. We know that there's not the mental health supports up here that there are in the city. There's not the medical facilities to go to, the doctors up here, and so people don't seek as much medical care," Treadway said. “We know across Colorado, the rural mountain communities are an underserved population, and to take away our community school is just going to further marginalize the population up here."
The recommended closure and consolidation plan is not finalized. The list will be formally submitted to the Board of Education on Oct. 13, and a final vote on the plan is scheduled for Oct. 27.
The PSD Board of Education will host four community listening sessions before casting a final vote:
- October 12, 6:00-7:30pm, Timnath Middle-High School (Auditorium), 4700 E Prospect Road, Timnath CO, 80524
- October 14, 6:00-7:30pm, Rocky Mountain High School (Media Center), 1300 W Swallow Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526
- October 15, 6:00-7:30pm, Poudre High School (Event Center), 201 N Impala Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80521
- October 19, 6:00-7:30pm, Fort Collins High School (Theater), 3400 Lambkin Way, Fort Collins, CO 80525
