The Poudre School District is seeking feedback from the community as it plans to close schools in the Fort Collins area due to rapidly declining enrollment. PSD initially announced the plans to consolidate or close some schools in 2023, but that announcement was met with backlash and protests from the community. The district later asked several dozen volunteers from the community to create a commission that would be in charge of proposing consolidation and closure ideas to the school board in 2024.
CBS
That group of volunteers has completed their initial survey, and the district has released the list of options the volunteers landed on. Now, the district is asking the community to provide feedback on the list of options before May 19.
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“Parents are freaking out,” said Emily Kent, a parent in southeastern Fort Collins.
Kent doesn’t have children in the school district right now but will next school year. Kent, who attended Linton Elementary School as a child, said she intentionally moved her family to the same community with the plan of her kids attending that very school.
Linton was not initially listed in the schools facing closure in the list released in 2023. Because of that, families in that neighborhood felt their school was safe from the changes. So that is why many felt completely caught off guard by the district’s recent announcement that has Linton being closed on nearly all of the options the public can comment on.
“Everyone is shocked. We feel blindsided,” Kent told CBS News Colorado’s Dillon Thomas. “We wouldn’t have bought our house here if this neighborhood school wasn’t available to us.”
Kent said Linton, which is a Title I school, is beloved in the community for being diverse and easily accessible by foot. Kent said nearly 90% of students at the school walk to class each day. She said she fears students would be placed in dangerous situations while trying to commute to other schools if Linton is closed.
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“This is not an easy thing. This is not something anyone wants to do. It is something that is a financial reality that as enrollment goes down, funding goes down,” said Emily Shockley, spokesperson for PSD.
The district is planning listening sessions for June 4. Community members can sign up for the sessions online.
Shockley said the district will be hosting sessions where school board members will be in individual rooms at Rocky Mountain High School to listen to the community’s input.
When asked what parents should do, given they only have until May 19 to weigh in on the committee’s proposals, Shockley said it was important for them to vocalize their concerns to the volunteer committee before they present their conclusions to the school board.
“(Parents) should absolutely take that questionnaire. That is the best way to get a response to the committee to look at while they are shaping those final scenarios to the board,” Shockley said.
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It is expected that the PSD board will make a final decision on which schools to close or consolidate by June 11.
Kent said she feels other schools had months to prepare for their arguments, while Linton was left to scramble during the 11th hour.
“The other schools and those families have had a long time to rally, to cry, to write their senators. We feel really stuck,” Kent said.
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Dillon Thomas
Dillon Thomas is multi-Emmy Award winning general assignment reporter/MSJ for CBS News Colorado. Read his latest reports or check out his bio and send him an email.
Police in Northern Colorado are investigating after a crash involving multiple vehicles claimed the life of a pedestrian.
The Greeley Police Department received reports of a crash at the 5500 block of Highway 34 around 5:50 p.m. on Monday. When officers arrived, they discovered that two vehicles were involved in a crash with a 19-year-old woman who attempted to walk across the highway.
Police said there was no crosswalk in the area, and she was struck by the driver’s side of a Chevrolet Blazer. The impact knocked the woman into the inside lane, where she was struck by a Chevrolet Traverse. A witness told officers they saw the woman crossing the roadway ‘as traffic arrived at her location.’
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First responders attempted life-saving measures on the woman at the scene before she was taken to North Colorado Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. GPD said the Weld County Coroner’s Office will release her identity at a later time.
Neither driver involved was injured in the crash. Police said they don’t expect charges to be filed against those drivers at the moment, but the case remains under investigation. The police department asked anyone with information on the crash to contact Officer Ed Kubala at Edward.Kubala@greeleypd.com.
Colorado’s best ski deal? Maybe one that costs nothing at all. At Steamboat Springs’ Howelsen Hill, “Sunday Funday is taken to an entirely new level,” reads the city webpage for Ski Free Sundays. Yes, on Sundays throughout the season, visitors need only to walk into the ticket office to grab a pass at no charge. […]
While Colorado ranks near the middle of U.S. states for carbon emissions per capita, it still produces enough CO2 per person to rival countries on the World Bank’s list of top emitters internationally.
In 2023, Colorado produced 13.9 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per capita. If it had been ranked by the World Bank during the same year, Colorado would have placed 14th among the more than 200 countries on the list, just behind Canada, at 14.1, and just ahead of the U.S. as a whole, at 13.7.
Among U.S. states, Colorado ranked 26th in carbon emissions per capita. Wyoming had the highest per capita emissions in the country, at 92.9 metric tons, while Maryland had the lowest, at 7.8.
Most of Colorado’s emissions come from energy production and consumption, primarily natural gas and oil production and electric power production and consumption.
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The Colorado Sun partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.
Sources
References:
Colorado State Energy Profile, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link
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2023 Colorado Statewide Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, pg. 128, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, November 2024. Source link
Senate Bill 24-230 Oil and Gas Production Fees, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December, 2025. Source link
Senate Bill 23-016 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Measures, Colorado General Assembly, accessed in December 2025. Source link
Carbon dioxide emissions, World Bank Group, 2024, accessed in December 2025. Source link
Energy-related CO2 emission data tables, U.S. Energy Information Administration, accessed in December 2025. Source link
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Type of Story: Fact-Check
Checks a specific statement or set of statements asserted as fact.
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Cassis Tingley is a Denver-based freelance journalist. She’s spent the last three years covering topics ranging from political organizing and death doulas in the Denver community to academic freedom and administrative accountability at the…
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