Facilities Explorer

The Jeffco Facilities Explorer is an interactive tool that allows families, staff, and community members to learn more about Jeffco Public Schools facilities and the factors that inform long-term capital planning.

The Explorer aligns with Jeffco’s Strategic Capital Master Plan, which provides a long-term approach to making smart, informed decisions about school buildings and investments. The plan looks at enrollment changes, the condition of our schools, educational needs, funding realities, and what matters most to our communities.
The Explorer makes some of this information easier to see at both the district and individual-school level.

Jeffco manages many school buildings across Jefferson County. These buildings vary in age, condition, size, enrollment and how well their spaces meet the needs of today’s students and programs.

At the same time, Jeffco’s student population and enrollment are changing, with overall enrollment declining. These changes are different from one part of the district to another. This means Jeffco must consider how much school space we will need in the future and how to invest responsibly in the buildings that will continue to serve students and communities.

The Facilities Explorer makes some of the information behind these decisions easier for the community to understand and access.

Not necessarily. Enrollment affects how much space the district needs; building condition affects what is needed in the space we continue to use.

Jeffco has fewer students than it did a decade ago, but it also has aging buildings with significant infrastructure needs. The Strategic Capital Master Plan identifies 66 of the district’s 122 school buildings that are more than 50 years old and have not had a major modernization. The plan also identifies about $525 million in needed facility repairs and improvements, including heating and cooling systems, roofs, plumbing, electrical systems and safety features.

That’s why Jeffco needs to look at both which school buildings will be needed in the future and how to invest in the buildings that will continue serving students and communities. Long-term planning helps the district understand future facility needs and determine where investments are needed most.
 

The Explorer gives the community an easy way to look at information about Jeffco schools and buildings. Instead of looking at just one number, users can explore different details and compare schools across the district.

This information supports the same approach used in the Strategic Capital Master Plan. The plan looks at several factors, including building condition, how well school spaces meet educational needs, enrollment, how much buildings are being used, and other factors that help Jeffco plan for the future.

No single data point tells the whole story of a school or determines an investment decision.

Facility condition describes the physical condition of a building and its major systems.

Jeffco conducts Facility Condition Assessments to identify needs involving building components such as HVAC systems, roofs, plumbing, electrical infrastructure, life-safety systems, and other physical assets.

This information helps the district understand which systems are approaching the end of their useful life, where deficiencies exist and where investment may be needed to reduce the risk of failures or disruptions.

Facility condition is especially important when planning investments needed to keep schools safe, warm, dry and operational. The Strategic Capital Master Plan calls for these operational investments to be guided by condition data, lifecycle analysis and risk.

Educational Adequacy looks beyond whether a building is physically functioning and considers how well its spaces support teaching, learning and student programs.

A building can therefore be in reasonable physical condition while still having spaces that do not fully support contemporary educational needs. Educational Adequacy information helps Jeffco identify opportunities to improve learning environments, specialized instructional spaces, accessibility, technology, student support areas, and other features that affect how a school functions educationally.

The Strategic Capital Master Plan uses Educational Adequacy alongside facility condition and other information when considering modernization and program investments.

Enrollment tells us how many students attend a school. Utilization helps show how enrollment relates to the capacity of the facility.

These measures are important because Jeffco needs to align its physical footprint with the number and geographic distribution of students it expects to serve. A building's capital needs cannot be considered entirely separately from whether and how that facility is expected to serve students over the long term.

For major modernization or replacement investments, the Strategic Capital Master Plan recommends considering enrollment trends, utilization, geographic access and community impacts before making significant long-term investments.

No.

The Explorer provides information about Jeffco’s school buildings and facilities. It does not announce school closures or make decisions about the future of individual schools.

Planning for the future of Jeffco’s schools requires looking at many factors, including enrollment, how buildings are being used, facility needs, educational programs, access to schools, community impacts and other district priorities. The Strategic Capital Master Plan looks at all of these factors because no single piece of information can determine what should happen to a school in the future.
 

Not necessarily. The information displayed in the Explorer can help users understand the conditions that inform capital planning, but the tool should not be interpreted as a final project list, funding commitment or construction schedule.

The Strategic Capital Master Plan establishes a framework for prioritizing investments over time. Specific projects still require further planning, scope development, cost estimating, available funding and, where appropriate, additional district and community processes.

The plan specifically anticipates investments occurring over multiple funding cycles rather than through a single funding effort, and informs planning regardless of total available funding amounts.

The Strategic Capital Master Plan uses two complementary frameworks: a Strategic Capital Investment Framework, which helps organize how capital resources are allocated, and a School Portfolio Decision Framework, which helps inform what types of actions may be appropriate for individual facilities.

Together, these frameworks help Jeffco move from understanding districtwide needs to considering school-specific investments.

The plan organizes investment around three broad priorities: Modernized and Safe Student Experiences, including modernization, safety, technology, playgrounds, and other improvements; Enhancing Student Programming, including learning environments, CTE, arts, athletics and other educational opportunities; and Ensuring Continuity of Operations, including HVAC, roofing, plumbing, electrical and life-safety infrastructure.

No. Capital planning involves both need and long-term strategy.

Some investments—particularly urgent health, safety and building-system needs—may require action regardless of other considerations. Major modernization or replacement investments require a broader analysis.

For example, the plan identifies facility condition, enrollment trends, utilization, capacity and geographic access among the inputs for considering elementary-school replacement investments.

This helps ensure that major investments support a sustainable long-term portfolio rather than simply ranking buildings from "best" to "worst."

The scale of Jeffco's facility portfolio means that needs must be addressed over time, as is the case for any large organization with a major facility footprint across a large area.

The Strategic Capital Master Plan is designed to help the district distinguish among immediate operational needs, modernization opportunities, and investments that support educational programming. It calls for sequencing investments across multiple funding cycles to address urgent reliability and safety needs while steadily modernizing learning environments and improving student programming.

Prioritization allows Jeffco to direct available resources where they can have a meaningful and lasting impact on student outcomes.

Not necessarily. Facility needs, planning estimates and eventual project budgets are different things.

Data in the Explorer can help identify the scale or type of need at a facility, but an actual capital project requires further investigation and design. Project scope, construction conditions, escalation, permitting, contingency and other factors can affect the eventual cost.

For example, the Strategic Capital Master Plan uses preliminary, order-of-magnitude estimates to support long-term capital planning and funding scenarios, with the expectation that estimates will be refined as individual project scopes are developed.

No. The Explorer should not be interpreted as a school-quality ranking.

Facility condition describes physical assets. Educational Adequacy evaluates characteristics of the learning environment. Enrollment and utilization describe how a facility is being used. None of these measures, individually or collectively, represents the quality of teachers, students, school leadership or the overall educational experience at a school.

A school can have significant facility needs and still have a strong school community and excellent teaching and learning.

Charter schools are important district partners in serving our communities and their students. District charter schools own or lease and operate their own facilities within Jeffco Public Schools, and due to their agreements with the school district, they make their own decisions around facilities investments and capital projects that best serve their particular needs and programs.

Charters, by law, receive a proportionate share of funds from the school district in order to support their facilities and capital investments and are responsible for planning and spending those funds. This includes any Bond Issuance and Mill Levy Override revenues.

The Explorer represents the best and most current available data used to support development of the Strategic Capital Master Plan. Facility conditions, enrollment, projects and other circumstances will continue to change as data in the tool is updated through subsequent data cycles.

The Master Plan is intentionally designed as an adaptable planning framework rather than a static project list. Jeffco staff can update information and reconsider priorities as enrollment patterns, facility conditions, educational needs and available resources change.

The Strategic Capital Master Plan was informed by both technical analysis and stakeholder engagement.

School principals provided input on how their buildings function day-to-day, while district departments and leadership contributed operational and programmatic perspectives. Community engagement also helped identify priorities important to families and community members. The planning process was designed to combine these lived experiences with facility, enrollment and educational data.

The Explorer is designed to help the Jeffco community see the complexity of managing a large school facility portfolio.

Jeffco is simultaneously responding to changing enrollment, managing aging infrastructure and working to provide learning environments that support students today and in the future. The goal of the Strategic Capital Master Plan is therefore not simply to invest more or less, but to invest strategically.