In response to ljlucero’s (Jeffco Mom) Your Hub article posted October 24, Tim Reed, Executive Director Facilities & Construction Management for Jeffco Public Schools would like to address the following:
The calculation of 15,000 empty seats (per ljlucero) was simplistic in its approach and did not take into consideration other factors that determine utilization. Using only the schools in the high school articulation areas, all school types are blended resulting in a very different conclusion. A more appropriate method is to develop the seat availability by school type and consider how capacity is calculated. This chart does that:
| School by Type | 2015-16 Enrollment | Enrollment + 5% | Available Seats | Difference |
| Elementary (K-6) | 37,657 | 39,540 | 39,290 | (250) |
| K-8 | 1,875 | 1,969 | 1,849 | (120) |
| Middle (7-8) | 10,057 | 10,560 | 15,982 | 5,422 |
| High (9-12) | 21,573 | 22,652 | 27,299 | 4,647 |
| High (7-12) | 2,013 | 2,114 | 2,155 | 41 |
| Option Schools | 3,663 | 3,846 | 6,585 | 2,739 |
| Summary | 76,838 | 80,680 | 93,160 | 12,480 |
These figures are from the annual Summary of Findings which is published by the district. The source material is the same as ljlucero referenced in her post.
Column one is the school type; the second column is enrollment for the 2015-16 school year at each type of school. Column three is considered full capacity. Students don’t arrive in classroom-size packages; there may be high or low enrollment per grade that impacts how the classrooms are assigned. For example, there may be 3-1/2 classrooms assigned to a third grade class because the number of third graders don’t exactly equal 4 classrooms. Adding 5% additional capacity allows the principal flexibility in classroom assignments and enrollment distribution. The fourth column is the available seats at facilities in use; those that are closed are not included in the calculations. Column five is the difference between full capacity and available seats at each school type.
The chart shows that elementary schools have a negative capacity while middle schools are significantly under-utilized. The 2016 District Wide Facility Master Plan proposed relocating sixth grade to the middle schools to provide some balance between the two types; creating capacity in elementary schools and better utilization in middle schools. For example, there are 1,000 available seats at Arvada High School. While this does increase seat count at all high schools by 70 students, this is doesn’t tell the whole story. This is a supply and demand issue; seats may be available in one school (Arvada High School) but that doesn’t alleviate demand for seats in another school (for example, Ralston Valley High School).
Option schools appear to be under-utilized. Enrollment at options are not calculated the same as neighborhood schools. Dennison, Jeffco Open, Manning, McLain, and D’Evelyn are “home” schools for their students and are near capacity or over-enrolled. Connections, Long View, Sobesky Academy, Miller Special, and Brady are unique programs that also have a transient enrollment or serve a unique student population. Students attending the Warren Tech programs are counted in their “home” high school population, but many of the Warren Tech programs have waiting lists because there isn’t enough space to accommodate the students who want to take the Career and Technical Education programs offered.
There are available seats, but there are not 15,000 available seats. The 12,500 seats that are available should be taken in context and where there is under-enrollment, how the district’s Master Plan will deal with it.