Littleton Public Schools’ current school boundaries have evolved over the decades. Sometimes boundary changes needed to be made to accommodate growth. Most recently, boundary changes needed to be made in 2008 to accommodate the closures of Whitman and Ames elementary schools; students in those attendance boundaries needed to be transported to other elementary schools where there was space. These solutions resulted in students from some neighborhoods being bused long distances to their new schools, sometimes past several other elementary schools on the way.

Since 2008, worsening local traffic, especially across major north/south roads such as Santa Fe, Broadway, University and Colorado Blvd, has created very long bus rides for some students. For example, three years ago, the average speed of LPS buses running routes was 25 miles per hour. Today, the average speed is 15 miles per hour.

Thanks to our community’s passage of a $298 million bond in 2018, a new elementary school will open on the Ames campus in the fall of 2021, and a new elementary for the Highland and Franklin communities will open on the Franklin campus in the fall of 2022. Both new schools need attendance boundaries. Creating boundaries for these new schools provides LPS an opportunity to examine and update all of its boundaries in a more logical way that will reduce transportation distances and time on the bus while seeking balance in school sizes. 

Since the fall of 2018, the LPS Long-Range Planning Committee has had 16, two-hour meetings to discuss boundaries. Committee members considered 16 different elementary school boundary scenarios, six different middle school boundary scenarios and four different high school boundary scenarios.

As part of this process, the Committee:

• Looked for logic and efficiency as new boundaries were considered
• Strived to keep neighborhoods together, recognizing that waterways and other obstacles make transportation more difficult
• Found boundary solutions for the new neighborhood school on the Ames campus 
• Found boundary solutions for the new neighborhood school on the current Franklin campus
• Strived to avoid wherever possible having to cross major north/south arterial roads, busing students past one school to attend another and creating a smaller-than-optimal schools
• Considered current feeder patterns (elementary to middle to high)
• Considered school size and capacity, with and without out-of-district students
• Considered socio-economic balance
• Looked toward the future: what building replacements are happening with the current bond, and what buildings might be replaced in future bonds? How will boundaries be impacted?

Feedback was gathered, new scenarios developed
The Committee asked for community feedback on the first round of boundary scenarios. Four stakeholder meetings were scheduled in January, 2020 and February, 2020 (one was cancelled due to a winter storm), where attendees learned about each scenario, asked questions of Committee members, gave feedback and took an exit survey. 

Presentations were made to and feedback was gathered from district-level committees.

Based on feedback received, the Committee developed six new boundary scenarios (two at each level). The Committee presented the new scenarios to the Board of Education during an online workshop May 7, 2020.

Parents were invited to participate in a survey from May 22, 2020 through June 5, 2020. Out of 15,737 invited to participate, 1,575 responses were received. These survey results were presented to the Board of Education during its regularly scheduled meeting June 11, 2020.

The Board of Education continued its conversation about boundary study options during its June 25, 2020 Board of Education meeting.

Based on feedback received from parents and based on the Board's conversations, three new elementary boundary options were developed. Parents can provide feedback to the new elementary boundary options through a survey in August 2020.