As a Riffenburgh parent, I was stunned to learn about the proposed closure option in Poudre School District’s 2009 facility plan. We moved to the neighborhood because of the proximity of parks and trails and the fact that a great elementary school is in walking/biking distance. We are thrilled to send our child to a school focused on sustainable learning through wellness, mind and science.
I would ask members of the Board of Education, City Council and the community to seriously consider the following points:
The facility plan references Edora Park as a good setting for a new high school. Why is Edora not considered beneficial to an elementary school that serves the community? As if the children currently attending Riffenburgh don’t appreciate the trees or the outside learning opportunities?
Riffenburgh serves anyone in the attendance area, not a specialized group that applies to and has the resources to provide transportation to a choice school. Riffenburgh is a truly diverse community school with the theme of sustainability, a theme developed by the school faculty, PTO and parents. Why should this theme be secondary to a new school with the theme of “experimental” proposed by the board of education and a facility plan committee of people outside of Riffenburgh.
The facility plan itself identifies school of choice as one of the issues affecting school enrollment. Why then is anyone recommending creating a new school of choice rather than improving resources at existing high schools to incorporate the curricula that is causing people to choice out of their local school?
Riffenburgh currently does not have parking or traffic accommodations for a 400-person high school. New parking would have to be carved from Edora Park, thereby adversely impacting the setting mentioned in the facility plan as a reason to locate a high school there in the first place.
Why is the City Council so worried about trash-truck traffic yet blind to school traffic? A new high school would bring in vehicles from all around the school district, increasing traffic and vehicle emissions throughout the neighborhood. Then, there is the issue of busing children out of the neighborhood school. If as a community we are to minimize emissions and road impacts, let’s apply the concept across the board rather than to a select private industry. City Council, if you are to regulate others, regulate your own.
Where are the numbers that support the Facility Plan and show that busing students out of area and renovating a school is cheaper? Oh wait, the feasibility plan calculating the financial and social costs has not yet been done. Is this a fiscally responsible approach by our elected officials?
Many new families have moved to the Riffenburgh neighborhood. Does the facility plan use current neighborhood demographics?
Please, do not close a thriving community school where our children have a chance to learn and to grow on one of the most beautiful school campuses in the district.
The next election is Nov. 3. Be assured in this and future elections, I will be urging friends and neighbors to read the PSD facility plan and vote for board of education and, in city elections, City Council members who are fiscally and socially in tune with the community and will fight to save our neighborhood schools.
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