Community groups rally to save RFL Elementary

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

It's easy to get a small town riled up: just threaten to close its school.

Poudre School District is considering closing Red Feather Lakes Elementary School and moving its students to Livermore Elementary, and the small mountain community is mobilizing in response.

"We can be a force to be dealt with," promised retired teacher and school volunteer Sandy Lagow.

Many local residents fear that if the school is closed, young families will move out and community vitality will decline.

A strategic planning committee plus three subcommittees have been formed to lobby for the school. The subcommittees include the Red Feather Parent-Teacher Organization, a business group and a Realtors group.

Red Feather's "save our school" effort took on increased urgency in early October, when the deadline for the decision affecting Red Feather was moved up from April 2010 to December of this year. The primary reason for the change, according to assistant superintendent Kevin Hahn, was to enable parents to exercise school of choice options for the next school year.

Hahn said the process could extend into early January, however. "We need to take time to gather information and listen to our communities," he said.

LaPorte schools could also be affected by changes (see story on page 1). Stove Prairie Elementary was originally on the list for possible closure, but has since been removed.

PSD committee forms

PSD took up the facilities issue because of the need for more efficiency, Hahn said. "The state financial picture is not positive," he noted.

The district launched the facility design feasibility committee in mid-October to study five possible changes, including the Red Feather move. Earlier this year, a facility study committee looked at options from strictly a cost point of view. That group estimated PSD could save from $100,000 to $3.4 million per year, depending on the options chosen.

Hahn could not estimate what the cost savings would be from merging Red Feather with Livermore, saying the feasibility committee will look at that issue in more detail. The new committee will also take into account other factors, including neighborhood and community needs, educational programming, transportation and geographic location.

Parents and staff of schools that may be affected by the decisions have deliberately not been included as members of the new committee. However, small teams from each of these schools will be invited to present information to the committee about the schools and their programs.

In addition, the public will have opportunities to provide input at community meetings hosted by the feasibility committee. Committee meetings will be open to the public, but the public will be allowed only to observe, not to speak.

As of Oct. 1, the student population at Red Feather was 37, plus 13 youngsters in the B.A.S.E. Camp preschool program. Livermore Elementary had 44 students on that date. However, PSD's facility study predicted Red Feather's enrollment to grow 30 percent by 2013, while Livermore Elementary's school population is expected to decline.

Community organizes

A PTO meeting on Oct. 8 brought 40 people together to discuss the possible closure and the best strategies for influencing school district officials.

"We parents are in this fight to the bitter end, and we're hoping it won't be bitter," said PTO president Jennifer Powelson.

Red Feather resident Larry Caswell urged community members to talk to school board members and emphasize the school's strong points. "Here in the mountain schools you've got a learning environment that is getting rarer and rarer," he said. "Some people move just so their kids can go to these schools."

He added that PSD is being pressed to offer diversity in its school settings, and the Red Feather school complements that effort.

Others at the meeting complained about busing young children 25 miles to Livermore, and the negative effects on learning that a long bus ride would have. They also cited the danger of driving over McNey Hill in the wintertime.

The school district, said Red Feather teacher Jo Lynn Andrade-Johnson, is "looking at money, looking at dollars." She suggested moving the school boundary to bring more children to Red Feather.

Red Feather residents were encouraged to write letters to local newspapers.

Both the business and Realtors' subcommittees fear that if the school closes, young families will move out of Red Feather.

"We have a community up here that really centers around families," said Nate Moon, owner of Nate's Mountain Auto. "If the school closes, one by one those families will move somewhere else and no new families will move in."

Young adults, Moon said, are "the employees that staff our stores and services." Losing them would cause Red Feather Lakes to become strictly a retirement community over the next few years, he predicted. Moon also said that a good percentage of his customers are parents and teachers.

Roger Clark, a Nebraska resident who owns a home in Crystal Lakes, plans to build a new business service center in Red Feather Lakes. He said he hopes to break ground on the project next spring, but closure of the school could be a factor in moving ahead.

"I will need some employees" to run the service businesses, he pointed out.

Lucille Schmitt of Ponderosa Realty said another concern is a potential drop in property values. Three families have told her that if the school were to close, they would have to move.

Buyers, Schmitt commented, are interested in both the local school and the fire department, which relies on a young population for its volunteers. Losing young families "affects the lifestyle of the whole community," she said. "We need a diverse population."

The Red Feather Lakes Planning Advisory Committee voted at its October meeting to send a letter to PSD officials, opposing closure of the school.

For more information about the facility design feasibility committee, go to the PSD web site at www.psdschools.org and click on "District Updates."