![]() The new high school building opened in 2005. Vrain Valley, Erie for years was served by a single school at each level, with the middle and high school combined in one building. There’s not as much collaboration as we would like.” “We have every nook and cranny filled with students and teachers,” he said. Along with converting maker spaces and community areas to classrooms, the early childhood area lost its teacher planning space in the second year. Principal Brent Caldwell said Meadowlark reached capacity in five years instead of the expected nine or 10 as families enthusiastically bought homes around the school. The building also includes three separate maker spaces, but two have become classrooms. The school was designed for students to rotate among glass-walled classrooms, small-group rooms and common spaces in mixed-grade learning communities, which act as a school within a school. Meadowlark has the square footage to fit all the students enrolled this year, but only by using most of its innovative spaces as classrooms. Teachers at Meadowlark said a new school can’t come soon enough. In the background, a maker space has been converted into a classroom. Second graders August Thompson, Zach Noble, Matthew Delgado and Bronx Charles draw at tables in an area that was originally dedicated to multipurpose but is now being used as a classroom at Meadowlark School in Erie on March 16. The school board is expected to make a final decision in August. ![]() Because the state doesn’t provide funding for facility needs, school districts generally must pass bond issues to fund large projects, such as new schools.īoulder Valley’s school board is considering asking voters to approve a bond issue as soon as November. Bond issues are paid back through property taxes and must be approved by voters. If needed, open enrollment also could be restricted to open up more space.įor the elementary students, Boulder Valley Senior Planner Glen Segrue is working with the Parkdale developers to better define the timing and help the district determine when a new school will be needed in the area.ĭepending on the timeline, a new school for the Parkdale neighborhood could be added to the district’s next capital construction bond issue. Altogether, 65% of the 1,813 students who live in the Centaurus attendance area are enrolled at the school.Ĭentaurus, like Angevine, has room for more students, district officials said. At the same time, about 600 students who live in the school’s attendance area leave to attend other high schools. While Centaurus has grown in recent years, it’s not at capacity at its current enrollment of 1,566 students, according to district officials.Ībout 365 of the students at Centaurus open enroll into the school from outside the attendance area. The home school for Boulder Valley’s Erie high school students is Lafayette’s Centaurus High. Angevine, where enrollment is below capacity, should be able to handle the additional students from the Parkdale development, according to district officials. By the fall of 2023, the district is planning to add portable classrooms at the school.īefore Meadowlark opened, Erie’s Boulder Valley middle school students were slated to attend Lafayette’s Angevine Middle School. The school, which opened in the fall of 2017 in the Flatiron Meadows neighborhood, is at capacity this school year with 693 students and is expected to grow. On the Boulder Valley side, Meadowlark is the district’s only school in Erie. Vrain Valley, Erie has become the fastest growing community for both districts. While a larger portion of the town is located in St. Growth in Erie is putting pressure on schools in the Boulder Valley and St. It’s just going against what we built for five years.” “It’s really hard to see how our model is being lost. “We have too many kiddos and not enough spaces,” Bush said. But faster-than-expected enrollment growth means maker spaces and community spaces had to be converted to classrooms. The 5-year-old school, designed to foster project-based learning, is ready to get back to its original vision after pandemic restrictions forced changes to its educational model. The 5-year-old school has had to convert some of its spaces intended to support collaborative learning into classrooms due to enrollment outpacing capacity. Second grade teacher Stacy Bush, standing left, talks to students about the job of a scientist on March 16 at Meadowlark School in Erie. Now, the second grade teacher said, she’s frustrated to see Meadowlark in a similar place. ![]() As teacher Stacy Bush visited schools in Canada as part of the planning team for Meadowlark PK-8 in Erie, she took notes about schools designed with innovative spaces that no longer used them as intended because of crowding.
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