In the spring of 2022, the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education charged Superintendent Tracy Dorland with bringing forward a comprehensive plan for school consolidation to address two decades of shifting demographics in Jefferson County which have led to a declining school-age population and subsequent impacts on enrollment. Although the reality of declining enrollment has been a long-standing concern, previous considerations of school closures were halted.
The Board of Education requested an after-action review related to ROFTS, via their November 10, 2022 resolution, to mine for lessons learned from the 2022 schools consolidation process, with the aim of identifying process changes and improvements for any future closures and consolidations of schools. Between November 30, 2022 and December 9, 2022, Amanda Perkins of Kochab Advising and Jeffco staff conducted after-action review conversations with those directly involved in, and responsible for, the change effort, including the Superintendent’s Cabinet, key internal stakeholders, principals from closing and receiving schools, Community Superintendents, and the Board of Education. In addition, a survey of FCB members was administered via the Panorama platform to understand their perspectives on the process.
In each of the after-action meetings, participants were asked to ground in goals that Jeffco staff established at the onset of the recommendations— that our principals feel supported, staff understand career opportunities, and our impacted families continue to attend Jeffco schools next year— and then offer and discuss what worked well, what did not, and what could be improved about the process.
This report summarizes the key themes and takeaways across all groups. In an effort to engage in real-time reflection and learning and to continuously improve, Jeffco Public Schools will conduct similar after-action reviews in August 2023 (to reflect on student enrollment and staff hiring January-June 2023) and December 2023 (to reflect on the school transition experiences for students, families and staff July-December 2023).
Read the Full After-Action Review