2 minute read
Broomfield’s Schools Evolve to Meet Needs of Growing Population
The foundation for a strong and thriving community lies in the education of future generations, and this was something Broomfield residents knew even in the mid 1880s when they built the community’s first wooden oneroom schoolhouse. The school was located at 10th Avenue and Main Street, and was also used for church services until a separate church was built in 1906.
By 1918, there were three schools educating children in the area. The three schools were each part of a different county, but all served the people living in the area that would eventually become Broomfield. The one-room schoolhouse became the Broomfield school, and served residents of Boulder County. The Westlake School, a historic building today still located on Lowell Boulevard next to the Paul Derda Recreation Center, was officially part of Adams County. The Lorraine School was located in Jefferson County.
Locals wanted to consolidate these three schools into one district, so in 1918 they voted to create the Broomfield School District. This would have prevented Broomfield teens from traveling to other cities to attend high school. Despite the movement being supported by a member of each school district’s board, a local judge opposed the decision because the new school district would still overlap three distinct counties and thus could not be fully “consolidated.”
Photo by Pat Eichner
In 1921 the one-room Broomfield School was replaced with a new two-room schoolhouse to accommodate the growing population. Two teachers taught about thirty students in that building, without running water. Once students finished their education there, they had to travel to Arvada or Lafayette to attend high school.
Turnpike Land Company started developing the master-planned community of Broomfield in the early 1950s. During this first filing, the old Broomfield schoolhouse was torn down and replaced with two modern cottage schools. Classes were held in these cottages from 1955 to 1961, when the city was finally incorporated and the population quickly grew to 6,000.
Photo by Pat Eichner
Broomfield County in 2001, the local schools resided in six different school districts belonging to the surrounding counties. Today, Broomfield’s 16 public schools belong to the Boulder Valley School District, the Adams 12 Five Star School District, the Weld County School District, the Jefferson County School District, the Brighton School District, and the St. Vrain Valley School District.
By 1962, Broomfield was home to Emerald School and Kohl School. A high school finally opened for 860 sophomore, junior, and senior students in 1963. Classes started in the fall of 1964 in the building we now know as Broomfield High School, though it has seen several remodels since then. Birch Elementary, Centennial Elementary, and Westlake Middle School all opened in the 1970s. The 1980s saw the opening of Broomfield Heights Middle School and Mountain View Elementary. At this point, Broomfield and its schools spanned four different counties.
Photo by Pat Eichner
The year 2000 saw the newest school additions to the Broomfield community with the openings of Aspen Creek K-8 School and Legacy High School. Even after the creation of
