Boulder High School is ranked 789th in the National High School rankings and 18th in the Colorado High School rankings. It has a 93% graduation rate and an 84% SAT participation rate. However, despite being a quality school, Boulder High faces challenges as its enrollment rates are declining—a trend that threatens the school’s continued strength and reputation.
In 2019-2020, Boulder Valley School District enrolled 31,000 students, and then in 2020-2021, the number of enrolled students decreased significantly, going to 29,240 students. This decrease in enrollment may have been due to COVID; the enrollment rates continued to lower, with 28,239 students enrolled in 2023-2024.
Boulder High School has not been widely regarded for its sports; it is known to be poorly performing in football, compared to other schools in the area. A football game against Fairview High School had the score 63-0, in favor of Fairview. And while we lost 63-0, other students not involved in the sports may find it more fun to cheer for the winning team.
And while this is not the best score, that does not count out the rest of Boulder High School’s sports. The mountain biking team and soccer teams are renowned, as well as others. But people who want to go to college for football may want to set themselves up for success by going to a school with a good football program, which isn’t exactly Boulder High. The more people who go to Fairview for football, the more people who follow; it’s a cycle.
Competitive sports are getting more intense at younger and younger ages. A certain pressure can be placed on someone if they are good at sports at a young age. They might be pressured to follow that talent, or they will want to on their own accord, and to follow that talent, they will want to go to a school that will help support their talent.
While BVSD has not officially announced the schools that may be shutting down due to low enrollment rates, the speculated schools are Flatirons Elementary, Heatherwood Elementary, Kohl, and Eldorado Elementary because they are currently below 50% capacity.
BVSD wants to possibly shut down these schools because their enrollment rates are so low; keeping schools afloat would be too big an expense.
These surface reasons only hint at the underlying issue: enrollment rates in BVSD are primarily dropping because of Boulder’s high cost of living. When the cost of living in a city is roughly 40-67% higher than the national average, it becomes difficult for young families to settle there, which leads to lower school enrollment.
With the high cost of living, many young families just starting out and getting their feet may struggle to afford Boulder. These young families will have young children who would be feeders to the Boulder Valley School District, but because not all of these young families can afford Boulder, they might move somewhere cheaper to live, such as Longmont or Lafayette.
In fact, the Saint Vrain School District, based in Longmont, has had its enrollment rates increase. They currently have 33,000 students enrolled, compared to the 27,000 students at BVSD.
Interestingly enough, St. Vrain is a newer school district; it was founded in 2009. BVSD was founded in 1960, with St. Vrain having less time to catch up to Boulder Valley’s enrollment rates, but they still have more people enrolling.
While Longmont and Boulder are only a couple of miles apart from each other, they have drastically different costs of living.
As covered before, Boulder has a cost of living 40-67% higher than the national average. Longmont, on the other hand, has only a 7% higher cost of living than the national average.
Longmont has a higher population of children ages 1-10, with there being about 10,000 to 10,500 children. Accordingly, Boulder has 6,000 to 7,000 children aged 1-10. Only 9% of Boulder’s population is 15 or under, which also happens to be the prime school ages.
Based on this info, it is logical that Boulder Valley School District will be making some cuts. Boulder High School itself is having some cuts of its own made. It has been gradually reducing staff because fewer staff are needed for fewer students. Because BHS has fewer enrolled students, the school gets less funding, both for the students and the teachers.
Boulder High School is a good school with great opportunities and great programs, and it should be recognized for such. However, with dwindling numbers, will it remain so?
