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BVSD today
Too large to administer effectively
The Boulder Valley School District is the second largest
in area in Colorado and the eighth largest by student population.
It encompasses nearly 500 square miles. With a total student population
of 28,500, it has 55 schools servicing 11 cities, towns
and communities in parts of 3 counties. (Source: BVSD &
Colorado Department Of Education.)
Diseconomies of scale
Traditionally, large school districts were justified by
the notion that greater size results in greater efficiency
and lower costs due to economies of scale. For example,
instead of having two superintendents for two districts
of 1,000 students, it is more efficient to have one superintendent
for one district of 2,000 students. However, large school
districts actually exhibit diseconomies of scale,
in terms of both costs and educational outcomes. According
to one recent review of the evidence, diseconomies of scale begin
to appear when districts grow larger than 6,000 students,
and “sizeable diseconomies of size may begin to emerge
for districts above 15,000 students.”
Fiscal challenges
Times are hard all over, especially for public schools.
And the State of Colorado currently ranks dead last in its
funding for K-12 education. Given the state’s current
financial crisis, this situation is not likely to improve
anytime soon. If we want our public schools to survive and
thrive, we must bring creative solutions to bear. But the
BVSD administration and board seem unwilling or unable to
try “out of box” solutions to financial problems.
Instead, they rely on traditional but wrong-headed "solutions"
such as school consolidations and closures.
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