Changing course, State Board orders reorganization of Adams 14 district

The Adams 14 school district must be reorganized, leading to possible dissolution or takeover by neighboring districts, the State Board of Education ruled Tuesday afternoon.

This makes the district north of Denver the first in the state to be required to start a process for reorganization. Adams 14 already was the first district that Colorado ordered to relinquish management to an outside entity, because of persistent low achievement.

The decision was a major change in direction after last month’s hearing, when State Board members expressed some trust in the district and its new leaders and allowed them to flesh out their plan to hire an outside manager to assume only partial authority.

But Tuesday, the three-year turnaround plan presented by Adams 14, which was still not finalized, fell flat for State Board members. Primarily, they said they didn’t see it truly giving any authority to the selected management partner. They were also disappointed that Adams 14 did not bring representatives from the management group to speak directly to the state.