Adams 12 Five Star Schools

The district expects the closures to save $3.5 million to $4 million a year.

On October 7, the Adams 12 Five-Star Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to close five elementary schools and Shadow Ridge Middle School in the 2027-28 school year, a plan that affects 1,586 students and 341 staff, Denver 7 reported.

The district lost 6,400 students over the past decade, including 1,365 between October 2024 and October 2025, triple the number it had projected, according to K-12 Dive.

As its enrollment has fallen for more than a decade, Jeffcott Public Schools has closed 21 schools in the past five years, sold empty buildings, and cut more than 130 staff positions, according to Chalkbeat Colorado.

School enrollment is down across the state, and that means that some parents could soon be doing morning drop-off at a new location.

Boulder Valley, Poudre, and Adams 12 school districts all have school closure or consolidation plans in the works, and these come after Douglas County and Denver Public Schools had closures of their own last year.

It is all part of a demographic shift that has families and educators across the state on edge.

For starters, what if you and your kid actually like the school that they're already at? Education reporter Rae Solomon has been scouring Colorado's recent string of school closures for answers about the future.

And in some communities, they aren't even arguing about the library because they are shutting the building down entirely.

Colorado's Adams 12 five-star school district just voted to close six schools after losing 6,400 students over the past decade.

And Kansas' Olathe Public Schools just approved closing six schools as well.

This is where demographic reality collides with institutional reality.

Falling national birth rates over the last 15 years, combined with the rise of school choice and voucher programs, they're just drawing students away from traditional public districts.