Pueblo School District 60 hits 11 straight years of enrollment loss

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Correction (October 8, 2026): This article now scopes its statewide streak comparison to complete histories in the original annual files. We removed an incorrect comparison of decline rates and unsupported explanations and forecasts, and clarified that grade membership is not a graduation count.

Pueblo School District 60^↗ recorded 13,302 students in 2025–2026, last school year's count and the most recent published data. It was the district's eleventh consecutive annual decline in the checked history.

The district enrolled 17,960 students in 2014–2015. Its loss of 4,658 students amounts to 25.9%, compared with a 2.0% statewide decline over the same original annual-file history.

The district's official right-serving plan describes school mergers alongside investments in preschool, instructional programming and community resource centers. Those are the district's responses to its circumstances; the enrollment records do not establish whether the plan will reverse the decline.

A decline in every annual comparison

Pueblo D60 first lost 295 students in 2015–2016. Its smallest subsequent annual loss was 71 students in 2021–2022. More recently, the losses increased from 458 in 2023–2024 to 460 in 2024–2025 and 787 in 2025–2026.

That latest loss was the second largest in the checked history, behind the 845-student drop in 2020–2021. The timing overlaps the pandemic, but the records alone cannot assign a cause. Pueblo had already declined in each annual comparison before that school year.

Its average annual loss was 382 students between 2014–2015 and 2019–2020. Over the interval from 2021–2022 to 2025–2026, it averaged 458 students per annual comparison.

The streak comparison has a defined population: 94 reported organizations with more than 500 students in the final year and complete histories for the same identifiers throughout the checked period. Pueblo was the only one with an active eleven-year decline streak. Jefferson County R-1^↗ had ten consecutive declines.

This is a comparison within the available original annual files, not a claim about every historical period or every kind of school organization.

Kindergarten and grade membership diverged

Kindergarten enrollment fell from 1,503 in 2014–2015 to 916 in 2025–2026, a decline of 39.1%. Grade twelve membership changed much less: from 1,177 to 1,163, a loss of 14 students.

Kindergarten was below grade twelve membership in 2020–2021, with 1,015 students compared with 1,080. It moved above the following year, then fell below again in 2022–2023, at 1,085 compared with 1,092. The gap widened in each subsequent checked year.

These are different enrolled cohorts. Grade twelve membership does not count graduates, and the comparison does not project the district's future total or identify migration and transfer patterns.

Neighboring membership moved differently

Pueblo County 70^↗ increased from 9,310 students in 2014–2015 to 10,240 in 2025–2026, a gain of 930 students, or 10.0%. Pueblo D60's lead over that district narrowed from 8,650 students to 3,062.

Those totals show different membership paths. They do not show that students lost by one district enrolled in the other, or establish a date when their totals might cross.

The district's response

In an authenticated written response to EdTribune, Superintendent Barbara Kimzey described a plan intended to align resources with student needs. She wrote, “Our right-serving plan aligns our resources with student needs.”

Kimzey described community engagement and investments in preschool, instructional options and community-school supports. The district's published plan also describes a pre-collegiate middle school and expanded secondary options. This public link supplies program context; the quoted wording comes from her written response to EdTribune.

The enrollment files measure the decline that preceded those changes. Whether the district's strategies alter that path requires subsequent published membership, rather than a forecast from the present grade counts.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Pueblo County 70 - EdTribune CO - Colorado Education Data

Pueblo School District 60 hits 11 straight years of enrollment loss

A decline in every annual comparison

Kindergarten and grade membership diverged

Neighboring membership moved differently

The district's response