For West Grand School District’s 2025-26 academic year, students in grades seven and eight will no longer be housed in the K-8 building. Instead, they’ll move to the high school, which currently includes ninth to 12th graders.

On April 8, the district’s board of education officially approved moving to the 6-by-6 structure, dividing the school’s two buildings between K-6 and 7-12.

“Moving to this structure better balances the staff we have, supporting students in each facility, and also allows us to take advantage of our staff who are licensed to teach grades 7-12,” West Grand Superintendent Elizabeth Bauer wrote to Sky-Hi News.

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Kremmling has operated under its current structure since 2008, with elementary and middle school students combined into one building and high school students in another. The district also operates an early childhood center for children as young as 6 weeks and as old as 5 years.

History of changes

The school structure in Kremmling has seen many changes since the district was first formed in 1881, when students in first through 12th grades learned together in a one-room schoolhouse. Kremmling was one of many one-room schoolhouses throughout Grand County, from the Blue River to Tabernash.

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As Kremmling’s population grew, students were divided into different buildings. By the 1950s, the district had moved to a traditional model of K-6 in an elementary building, 7-8 in a middle school building and 9-12 in a high school building.

However, some rural districts like West Grand have had to get creative as enrollment fluctuates, impacting the staff-to-student ratio. In 2008, the school transitioned into a K-8 and 9-12 structure. And now, it will move into a K-6 and 7-12 structure.

Staffing shortage led to change

The district first started discussing a possible 6-by-6 structure in 2021, when it struggled to find teachers for middle school students. The idea of the 6-by-6 structure was born out of the need to keep qualified teachers in front of students.

“Like many schools in Colorado and throughout the nation, West Grand has struggled with teacher shortages,” Bauer stated. “We were facing the possibility of important, core subjects having to be taught exclusively online and eliminating extracurricular programs, which we don’t believe best serves our students.”

The staffing shortage is partly due to lack of attainable housing as well as cost of living. 

Over the past couple years, staff with the District Accountability Committee got serious about exploring the 6-by-6 possibility, led by Carl Wood.

“This wasn’t a decision taken lightly,” Bauer said. “At that time, our District Accountability Committee reached out to other similar districts that have moved from a traditional structure to 6-by-6.”

Student population trends

In addition to less staff, Kremmling has also experienced a dip in its student population since 2019, when there were 434 students. This school year, there are 389 students. The student-teacher ratio for the district is about 13:1, according to the Colorado Department of Education. The average ratio in the state is 16:1, according to Public School Review.

Bauer hopes the amount of teachers and students at West Grand will increase in the coming years, since “the health of the school is an important piece of the health of the community.” 

Bauer said 6-by-6 instruction could also provide more “equitable supports and services.” Currently, about two-thirds of the student population is at the elementary/middle school and one-third at the high school. The new structure would even out this disparity, allowing staff such as counselors and nurses to serve a more equal number of students in each building. 

A plan in place

According to Bauer, the “administrative staff has been working on a plan that includes everything from class transitions to locker assignments.”  

The new structure won’t affect extracurriculars, such as sports or other grade-specific activities.

“While our administrative team has drafted a preliminary plan, an important piece is teacher contracts, which include what subjects and grades they will be teaching in the upcoming school year,” Bauer said.

Bauer explained that staff will “make this transition as smooth as possible” for families, including hosting community events as the new school year approaches.

Once teacher contracts are signed in late April and the 6-by-6 plan is finalized, the district will announce dates for community events.

Some parents express concerns

On a West Grand Facebook post, a few parents expressed concerns with how the new structure could affect students’ educational experiences.  

“We understand this transition may cause some anxiety for our students and families, especially incoming 7th and 8th graders,” the district stated on Facebook.

District Board President Mitch Lockhart told Sky-Hi News that parent concerns have mostly revolved around the large age gap between seventh graders and seniors.

Lockhart said he is not worried about issues such as bullying increasing, because bullying “is an issue we continually focus on. As with any other district, it’s not tolerated,” he said.

His own daughter is an incoming seventh grader.

“Three years ago, when we first brought this to our community, there were many more concerns with it at that point,” he said. “Since then, there’s been a lot of research done.”

Lockhart added that research has come from discussions with schools in Colorado with the same structure, including Fowler, De Beque and Holyoke. Hayden has a K-12 structure.

According to Lockhart, there is a potential at West Grand for juniors and seniors to serve as role models for younger classmates, who can look up to these students as they move into the high school building.

“I’m hoping to work through a different mindset of challenging our upperclassmen with that leadership role,” he said.

As a rural community, Kremmling residents have had to rely on each other to face changes.

“They’re turning those fears and those negatives into something positive,” Lockhart said about staff members who are working with parents. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think that it was in the best interest of our students at West Grand.”