Board continues to consider attendance boundary adjustments

At its meeting this month, the Board discussed proposed adjustments to school attendance area boundaries and considered modifications to reflect feedback from families.

Staff presented an update on outreach efforts to seek feedback from families regarding the  proposed changes intended to take effect for the 2026-27 school year. Over the summer, staff reached out via email to families living in the attendance areas that would be affected and invited them to speak with a BVSD representative. Input is also being collected via a form on a webpage about the changes. 

Among the feedback offered by families were concerns about how the change would impact schools that were losing students from their attendance areas, comments about the strong communities and existing relationships at schools, concerns about commuting becoming more difficult along with participating in after school activities closer to the former school. Some parents in Gunbarrel also shared that they support the proposed elementary changes, citing an easier elementary commute and closer proximity.

In light of the family feedback, staff suggested the Board could consider giving students enrolled at a school in 2026 the option to continue at the school through completion rather than limiting the option to remain only to students in their last year at the school and their siblings as originally proposed. This adjustment was one suggestion from families to help ease the transition to the new boundaries and would allow students to continue relationships with friends and teachers at their current schools. 

Although transportation was brought up as a concern for some families, due to limited resources, busing is proposed only to be provided to the neighborhood schools defined by the new attendance area boundaries. 

Schools that would be affected by the proposed boundary changes include Bear Creek Elementary, Casey Middle, Centennial Middle, Creekside Elementary, Crest View Elementary, Heatherwood Elementary, Manhattan Middle, Nevin Platt Middle, and Whittier Elementary. 

Several changes are planned for middle school boundaries that don’t impact students but would clean up the attendance area maps. Two boundary adjustment ideas that were presented to the Board in May are no longer being considered. 

See details of the proposed changes on a dedicated webpage. 

These changes came from a new five-year review cycle of attendance area boundaries that was suggested by the Long Range Advisory Committee (LRAC) and began this year. The Board held work sessions in January, March, and May to discuss potential boundary adjustments.

The Board will take action on the proposed changes at its Sept. 23 meeting. 

Learn More from Past Board Discussions:

• January 14, 2025
• March 11, 2025 
• See also: Article - The Spot, March 2025: Boundary adjustment proposals aim to rebalance school neighborhood populations in the context of declining enrollment 
• May 20, 2025
• See also: Article - The Spot, August 2025: BVSD connects with families concerning possible attendance boundary changes

Why make these changes?

In accordance with Board Policy JC, attendance boundaries will be reviewed every five years to ensure they continue to serve the district’s long-term planning efforts. Specifically, attendance boundaries are designed to:

• Foster balanced enrollment among schools in order to support high-quality learning experiences for all students 
• Ensure efficient use of district resources, including facilities, transportation, and staffing
• Maintain neighborhood and community cohesion
• Enable thoughtful long-range planning

The current boundary change proposals aim to support one or more of these objectives. For example, there are currently more than twice as many students living in the Crest View Elementary attendance area compared to Heatherwood Elementary, and Centennial Middle School has significantly more students in its attendance area than Nevin Platt Middle School. 

Adjusting attendance boundaries can help rebalance enrollment, making it possible to sustain strong academic programs and provide more equitable opportunities for all students. When enrollment is uneven across schools, it impacts funding and the ability to provide essential programs and staff, such as classroom teachers, counselors, and specialists in art, music, P.E., and libraries. Fewer students can mean fewer adults to support them, which affects the overall student experience.

Particularly in Boulder there are a number of split feeder systems, where students from one elementary school may be assigned to different middle schools and different high schools. Currently, students at Whittier Elementary are assigned to two different middle schools and students at Creekside are assigned to three different middle schools. The proposal to adjust the Casey Middle and Manhattan Middle attendance boundaries aims to clean up the feeder system for Whittier and Creekside.