Poudre School District Proposed Closures: Save Linton

[Angela Dwyer]

Hello,

Earlier this morning, I sent an email expressing my deep concern with the potential of closing schools but in particular for Linton Elementary and by extension its feeder middle school, Boltz. 

I know none of this is easy but I wanted to share a little more, Linton is a Positive Behavior School, a feature that is underscored as important. So much focus is on academic standards alone but clearly PSD recognizes the importance of mental health per the strategic plan. There is a large emphasis on encouragement and support for all kids at this school.

I have attached a picture of my daughter's mountain lion stuffie, "Linton". She saw this toy on one of our National Park trips and immediately knew "Linton" had to come home with us. Linton's school mascot is the mountain lion. 

However, I am sending a follow-up as I was disturbed to learn that consolidation will not include bussing or that is not clear yet, how can that not be part of this conversation now? 97% of Linton students do not take a bus to school, they are close enough to bike and walk, so that is well over 280 students that would be expected to walk, bike or be driven across Timberline and Horsetooth or Timberline and Harmony, depending on the school. Timberline and Harmony alone receive 82,000 cars a day. Again, there are families at our school who depend on the system of the "neighborhood school and bussing" design in order for their child to get an education and perhaps themselves one day no longer live in poverty as some do. Education is the key to ending that cycle. 

There are 4 Title 1 schools in PSD and they are Harris Bilingual Immersion School, Irish Elementary Escuela Bilingüe, Laurel School of Arts and Technology, Linton Elementary School, and Putnam School of Science. These schools are vital to providing support for marginalized communities. Putman, Harris Irish and Linton are proposed for some type of disruption and have the most at-risk students.

Furthermore, Fort Collins boasts as a town that is progressive and supports and embraces walking and biking as much as possible, how many more cars will be back on the road during the busiest times when the congestion in Fort Collins has only increased??

Thank you again,

Angela Dwyer

Below is the email I sent this morning

Dear State, County and City of Fort Collins Representatives,

I am a member of the PSD school district community and I am very concerned about the latest proposal. In particular, I am most impacted and concerned by the proposed closure, or major transition, for Linton Elementary present in every proposed scenario. Including one scenario closing Boltz, the middle school Linton feeds into. 

While I appreciate that this is a difficult situation, and that hard choices may have to be made, it is my opinion that the decision to close Linton, or to close and combine Harris, will disproportionately impact many of our community’s most vulnerable students and families. Both of these schools are some of the most diverse and economically disadvantaged in the district. To my knowledge, these vulnerable communities have not received anything close to the consideration and communication that they should be given regarding these proposed changes. There will absolutely be undue hardship to these populations with the current proposal that could, and should, be avoided. 

BEFORE any final decision is reached, I strongly believe that a comprehensive impact assessment needs to be conducted with the many racial/ethnic minorities students/families who would be placed into hardship with the plan to close or combine diverse schools, like Linton and Harris, outlined in the current proposal. Additionally, given the challenge for these populations to participate in majority White/English-speaking events given travel, financial, and language and other barriers, I think the provision of specific townhall and focus group meetings and/or one-on-one meetings, with bilingual interpreters available, should also be provided in order to discuss this proposed changed with the many non-Native English speaking families who would be impacted. The data from this assessment should be fully considered in any decision on school closures across the district, as well as how the district plans to mitigate undue hardships on these families. 

Linton is a wonderfully positive and diverse public school, which is a unique treasure in our community. It should be seen as a successful example from which to model other diverse schools. Instead, due largely to White community misunderstandings and fear of the diversity and low test scores at Linton, many White parents in Linton’s school zone choose to send their children to other schools. THIS is a huge reason why the enrollment numbers are a bit low at Linton. And if the district closes Linton for that reason - this directly serves to prop up the systemic & implicit bias at work, as well as tacitly endorse it. Linton’s students and families deserve better than this from the school district. They don’t deserve for their school to be closed due to lower enrollment numbers which are rooted in racism, classism, and xenophobia. They deserve the opposite - increased visibility, community education, and improved recruitment efforts to reduce the stigma surrounding a diverse school environment like Linton’s. 

 

Please see the following specific points regarding my concerns with the current proposal: 

The committee has violated its own rubric and equity goals in this latest proposal.  

#1 "Ensure equitable access to and participation in the community engagement process ... and provide ample time for engagement and access to events."  By adding Linton and Johnson suddenly to the school closure list only in these new proposals, the committee is robbing those communities of this access.  We don't have time to protest, petition, get state senators to write letters on our behalf.  

#2, "Minimizing transportation needs."  Closing Linton, a school 97% of its students walk to, will significantly increase transportation costs to the district. In addition to the costs, requiring bussing would disproportionately affect the lower income and Hispanic communities Linton serves.  The committee's own engagement report notes that "Spanish-speaking students have a high need for bussing".  So when those students miss the bus, they may not have the same opportunity to get to a far-away school as other students.  

#3 "Reduces the total budget size factor."  Linton is set to have within its existing boundary, one of the most fixed and smallest in the district, expand by 600 housing units in the next few years.  I know of no other such sized projects in other schools closing.  Linton is a Title school and receives $434,000 in federal money, plus other grants, to support its underprivileged community.  That alone is 10% of the entire savings PSD is proposing. 

That leads to the fourth and most important & egregious violation....

#4 "Anticipates and mitigates possible negative impacts for at-risk and/or marginalized groups." 

Closing Linton out of the other schools in SE Fort Collins (Shepardson, Kruse, Traut, Werner, and Bacon) unmistakably strikes directly against this guideline.

Linton is one of more economically and demographically diverse schools in the district. 56% of the students are people of color, and 50% are Hispanic. 56% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch, 12% of Linton students qualify for McKinney Vento Homeless Education support, 28 Newcomer students live in the Linton neighborhood, representing the countries of Honduras, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Mexico, Vietnam, Colombia, and Nicaragua. Linton has 90 multilingual learners. Linton houses a highly effective program for Affective Needs (formerly called “SED”), and the staff at Linton have extensive training in many areas to support the needs of its diverse student body. Linton has a bilingual Principal who makes sure all announcements are translated for her students and their families.

Furthermore, the rubric states "If facility conditions are similar, schools that serve the largest FRL student population should house the newly consolidated school."  Not only was this ignored but is diametrically opposed by this plan.  

Again in the engagement report, "There is a concern that any shift of Latino/Latina students into other schools will result in them being viewed as 'invaders.' It would be better to bring outside students of different ethnicities into schools more heavily enrolled with Latino/Latina students." Putting the students from Linton in this situation is clearly an undue burden to place upon these children and their families. 

It is such a sadly common scenario where the lower income and more diverse schools are closed, while the loudest, most affluent, and most influential White schools stay open. We can do better than this, can’t we? 

Sources:

1. https://www.cde.state.co.us/schoolview/financialtransparency/compare/1550/1560/0470

2.https://www.psdschools.org/sites/default/files/PSD/communications/Long%20Range%20Planning/Facilities%20Planning%20Steering%20Committee/FPSC_GuidelinesandEquityCriteria.pdf

3. https://www.psdschools.org/sites/default/files/PSD/communications/Long%20Range%20Planning/Facilities%20Planning%20Steering%20Committee/Community%20Engagement%20Report%20PSD%20April%202024.docx_updated.pdf

4. Email from Kristin Stolte, Principal of Linton Elementary School 5/11/2024

5. Project  FDP240004  https://accela-aca.fcgov.com/CitizenAccess/Cap/CapDetail.aspx?Module=Planning&TabName=Planning&capID1=24CAP&capID2=00000&capID3=000E6&agencyCode=FTCOLLINS

6. Image in Community survey dated 5/11/2024   https://colostate.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_01eSGGUOpJC3Rjg

There must be a more creative solution than closing schools. The school district just reworked the bussing routes to save money, how will that impact this? Why do schools need to pack classrooms? Less kids means a better quality for each child. Has the district looked for other sources of external funding, fundraising, or a capital campaign?  Why does CO underfund education such that we are in this situation to begin with? 

 

Please consider reviewing and taking action, and thank you for reading and for your time.

Sincerely,

Angela Dwyer

Linton Elementary 4^th grade Parent