These Schools Were a Lie: Schools Promised, Never Built in South Denver
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Some people bought a home in Southern Denver thinking they would be walking distance from their local school only to be told "nevermind". Here's the areas this happened, why it happened, and what is going to happen next. Because some South Denver neighborhoods were marketed with future schools that never actually opened. These schools that were advertised, promised, planned, or highly anticipated in fast-growing communities like Crystal Valley Ranch, Sterling Ranch, and Meridian Village, and those schools still have not been built - some never will be.
If you are moving to Castle Rock with kids, considering a home in Crystal Valley Ranch, looking at Sterling Ranch, or wondering why Meridian Village does not have a middle school, this is one of those topics you need to understand before buying. A neighborhood can look perfect on paper, but if the school site never turns into an actual school, families may end up with longer drives, changing boundaries, and fewer options than they expected.
We break down what happened with the Crystal Valley Ranch middle school site, the Meridian Village elementary school site, and the long-discussed Sterling Ranch new school plans. We also talk about why school enrollment is declining in parts of South Denver, why some districts are hesitant to build new schools, and how changing birth rates, housing patterns, construction costs, and district planning all play into the problem.
This is a part of a bigger conversation about the dangers of new builds and the cons of new builds that buyers do not always think about. Builders and communities may advertise future amenities, parks, retail, or schools, but those plans can change. A school shown on a map or mentioned in early community plans is not the same thing as a school being funded, approved, built, and opened. We talk through what happens next for families in these neighborhoods. That includes the closest school for Crystal Valley Ranch, the closest school to Sterling Ranch, what families in Meridian Village are dealing with, and what buyers should ask before assuming a future school will serve their neighborhood.
So, is South Denver still a good place for families? Is Castle Rock still a good place for families? Is Castle Rock a good place to raise a family? Is Sterling Ranch a good place to raise a family? What about Meridian VIllage? If you are asking these the answer is: for most yes, but you need to be aware of these things in this video to really know what you are signing up for.
Jake Freedle and Megan Freedle break down what buyers need to know about school planning, school enrollment, new construction neighborhoods, and the real estate risks that can come with relying on future promises.
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Chapter 1: Douglas County Schools Promised but Never Built
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Imagine buying a home in a new build community and paying a hefty lot premium just to have the home that backs to the open space of a new elementary school
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that you're so excited for your kids to go to only to find out that instead
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[music]
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a big apartment building is going to be constructed.
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That's right. That is exactly what could happen in one Douglas County neighborhood. Today we're talking about three big Douglas County school issues
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where builders promise schools and that promise is not being fulfilled. Uh so we're going to talk by the end of this
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video you're going to understand all the neighborhoods that need to be concerned where those kids in those neighborhoods are going to end up going to school, how
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this is going to in fact impact traffic routes, real estate values, and everything you need to understand about this situation.
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That's right. We are Jake and Megan Fredel. We are your brother sister team, full-time real estate agents, part-time tour guides to all things Denver living.
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And today, we're going to talk to you about everything you need to know about these Douglas County school closures.
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So whether you're a buyer looking into this area for the perfect neighborhood, or whether you are considering selling your home in your future, wondering how
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these issues are impacting your your home's value, we are here to guide you through the whole thing so you understand all of the factors involved
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here. So, let's hit it. Let's start off by talking about Crystal Valley Ranch cuz this was a new build community where this exact thing just happened. So, they
Chapter 2: Crystal Valley Ranch Middle School Did Not Open
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had this thing and this happens a lot with new build communities. You walk in the sales office and they have the big billboard with pitching all of the features and the amenities and all the
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great things about the community. And on that they have the map where they have the school site blocked off and maybe even a little icon picture of a school.
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[music] Definitely seems pretty set in stone to the people walking in, but it's definitely not. And this is a great example of how it's not because that
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middle school is not actually going to be built there. [music] That's right. And this is something we tell folks about new builds all the time
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is there's just a lack of certainty in this whole process. As a matter of fact, we have a whole video on this called the dark side of new builds. Check it out.
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But uh back to this today. So, if you looked at the site plan, what it had originally was this large, you know, we've got Crystal Valley Ranch on the
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south side and far north you've got Crystal Valley Parkway and across that major road, we had the site for the middle school. So, it's just to the east
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of Riyolite Park and in between that and another neighborhood. And to me, if you look at how things ended up here and you
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look at that tiny little space, this was ill- faded from the start. I mean, it just looks like a space that's going to be squished to fit an entire middle
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school in. [music] And I'm just a guy who's looking at a map, but it never made sense to me. And now it does make
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sense that there's not going to be a school there.
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Yeah. I mean, crossing that road is one thing, but as if that placement and all of the weirdness associated with the location was not bonkers enough, the
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size of it was just not enough. So, it was 20 acre parcel that was proposed to be this middle school and only 17ish
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acres of that was actually buildable land. And I guess you need about 30 acres to build a middle school. That's not something I knew about.
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I know. But you know who should have known that? The builder. That was a pretty major mess up there.
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Yeah. I'm not saying that they intentionally, you know, bait and switched people into thinking there was going to be a school knowing it would never happen there, but it all just does feel a little bit messy.
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[music]
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And now something has to happen with that parcel of land that was originally slated for this middle school. And it's been a topic of contention of what's
Chapter 3: Closest School to Crystal Valley Ranch and New Homes Planned
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going to happen. And it's [music] pretty set in stone at this point that that is going to be passed on to become more homes. [music] I mean, we're talking
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over a 100 homes in that area. And that's not what anybody was expecting.
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So maybe you bought the lot of land thinking you were going to back to the open space of the school. Maybe you bought the land because you really wanted to be that really really close
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jot to your middle school. [music] Or maybe you just did not expect another 15 people adding or 115 families adding
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to your neighborhood density. And so these are a lot of the things that are coming up because of this.
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And what did the district let the the builder get that piece of land back for? $500,000.
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I mean, you can't even buy like a home in that community. [laughter] I know, right? I was going to say you can barely buy a lot in that community for that much. Insane.
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So, what's happening for all the middle schoolers in this situation? Cuz that part is a mess. So, you used to have this little school that was going to be
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a short walk away uh across a busy road, albeit. But now we have two other options. You've got a charter school
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which includes some uniforms and some other different things about the charter school that [music] is 3 miles away from the original site in Castle Rock. And
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you've got another school which is Mesa Middle School that is 6 and 12 miles away. That's a tough drive.
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I mean that goes from being like a minor inconvenience across a busy road to being like you're driving to a whole new town almost.
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Yeah. Now, what if you had an older middle schooler and you specifically bought a home walking distance so you could feel like they could safely get
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there while you headed to work and now you're having to wait until their school starts to go do the extra what is it 15minute drive longer.
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Oh my gosh. Yeah.
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And then head off on your work day. That I mean that is really tough.
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And no shot of walking or I mean like pretty hefty bike ride even for these kids if they want to go to either of these locations. So, the next neighborhood that we'll talk about is
Chapter 4: Sterling Ranch School Funding and Enrollment Problems
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Sterling Ranch, cuz there's a big school problem going on there. And this school problem is not like what we talked about in our other video. If you've heard
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about some of the schools closing down in Douglas County, they were having that issue because they didn't have enough students to fill the schools. This is not the issue here.
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There's not enough schools to fill the students.
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Yes, there they've got 700 elementary age students in that area and nowhere to put them. So, this isn't a capacity
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issue. It's a funding issue. And so when we think about these new build communities and we think about their very high taxes and what all is being
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paid for them, you know, we always pitch like those [music] high taxes have to be there because they've got to build all this new infrastructure that's not in place like some of these older
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communities already have set up. We think of that being like a new school and they do pay a fee toward a new school. I mean, Sterling Ranch, this new
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boat community has paid about $3 million in their fees [music] to go towards school funding and that felt like a lot to me.
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Yeah. Unfortunately not. Do you need something like $60 million to fund an elementary school?
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Yeah. Okay. So, they don't have that and they need it if they want to put that elementary school in. So, what do they do? Well, they have to get a Douglas
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Countywide vote to approve a bond to fund it. So, you're asking people in the district to fund your school. And that's
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a problem. So, Megan, you mean the moms who are ready to protest and stop traffic on High Island Highlands Ranch
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Parkway because they lost their home elementary schools? Those folks have to vote yes on a bond to open another
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elementary school on a different part of town. Yeah, that's a tough cell.
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Brutal. [music] So, if there isn't the elementary school in Sterling Ranch right now, it really means that for your school options, you've got a few in
Chapter 5: Closest School to Sterling Ranch and New School Plans
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Highlands Ranch and that's where you've got to go to or there's a couple over in Roxboro. You do have the one charter. Do you remember the name of that?
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John Adams Academy is coming. It's going to start as a K through 8 school and then plans to expand uh for K through 12 uh starting in the fall of 2026.
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But outside of that, you are traveling, you know, to get to most of your schools. And of course that's a transportation pain point, a commute pain point. Um your kids aren't walking
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to school very often pain points, but there's more to it than just that.
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Yeah. It's really like a community issue, you know, because your your kids aren't going to the school within the community. So a lot of times their friends are going to live farther away.
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And so beyond the drive to school, [music] there's drives to friends house and there's just like the kids can't just ride their bikes around and see each other. And so we're really just
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like building more like shoving these kids inside more to be on their televisions cuz they're not going to be around their community.
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Yeah. A little bit of a community divide. But this story does have a little bit of a happy ending.
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That's right. After several dirt lots have been proposed and denied and lots of arguing back and forth. [music] Elementary School 51, as it is currently
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called, has finally been approved and funded. [music] So hopefully that opening up soon. That is the elementary school. Still nothing
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fully set for a middle or high school, but hopefully that's coming very soon as well.
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So, you're still going to Highland's Ranch for that, which is I think I don't know if we said about a 10 to 15 minute drive, depending on where you are in Sterling Ranch.
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Last and definitely not least, as a matter of fact, maybe most.
Chapter 6: Why Meridian Village Does Not Have a School
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Yeah, maybe the most of a struggle of a story is what happened over in Meridian Village. It's a story really similar as to what happened over in Crystal Valley
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Ranch. There was a proposed site for an elementary school that never came to fruition. [music] And to understand everything that happened here, you
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really got to understand something called the sixth grade migration. Right?
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A lot of schools in this area were on a system where they would do K through 6 for the elementary schools. And for a
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number of reasons, including this very school issue, uh the school district decided in this area that these schools would swap to a K through 5 and then the
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sixth graders would instead be part of middle school, changing some of those middle schools from just 78 to 678. So
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because of all of that, we ended up with extra spaces across those other elementary schools. And ultimately they decided they did not need this
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additional elementary school. [music] And so without this new proposed elementary school, the kids in the area
Chapter 7: Meridian Village Elementary School Site and Teacher Housing
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are just left to go to one of a couple different schools nearby. And neither of them are a terribly long distance away.
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You know, none of them are a super [music] easy walk. But I think the bigger pain point is that both of them require you to cross a fairly major road
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to get to them. Now, if you want to figure out which one um if you have a preference on which one you're going to and you want to figure out how to apply to those, we actually have a whole video
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going over Douglas County School of Choice and how to pick and get into certain schools and find out which ones you've gotten into. So, be sure and
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subscribe and check that one out. But in the meantime, that is what these people are doing is they are figuring out one of those couple schools to go to and crossing a bit of a major road to get into it.
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That's right. There are two school choices that are geographically closest.
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One is much closer uh straight as a crow flies, but it has a weird street situation where you have to drive way around. And the other that's one's about
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two and a half miles driving away. Not really a clear walk path either on that one. And the [music] other one is just about 2 mi away driving further straight as probies, but an easier driving route.
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Another thing in this process [music] is what's being proposed for the formal school plan. It is being proposed that there will be an apartment building. Uh
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[music] which is not everyone's favorite in a neighborhood like this. Um they are trying to solve another problem which like hey maybe it's a good thing we
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don't [music] need another school cuz the school district's not paying our teachers enough money to live in their own county anyway. So they're actually
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proposing uh in this apartment building be prioritized as lowincome housing for teachers and other county workers.
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[music] I mean, we could just pay our teachers a little better. That is a fantastic idea right there.
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Well, that's a wrap on Douglas County's Broken Promises. Thanks so much for joining us today. Uh whether you're a buyer who's incoming and [music] looking
Chapter 8: 12:18 Should You Buy in Castle Rock, Sterling Ranch, or Meridian Village?
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to get to know the area better and wondering the perfect neighborhood for you, or you are already a homeowner wondering how these [music] things
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impact your resale value, we are professional real estate agents here to help you understand [music] all the nuances so you can make a strong
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decision about your next move. Yes, absolutely. We've got videos of neighborhood tours, more information on schools, anything that you can really
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want to know about anything in southern Denver and beyond. We have all that content ready for you. But none of it is a [music] great replacement for an
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in-person or on the phone conversation with us. So, text us, schedule a Zoom call with us, or just give us a ring because we're so excited to talk to [music] you.
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We'll see you next time. And thanks for being here.
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Q: Why do some South Denver neighborhoods have schools that were promised but never built?
A: In many master-planned communities, developers market a future school site to attract buyers, but the school only gets built if the district secures funding and enrollment projections hold. When growth slows or district budgets tighten, those planned schools can be delayed indefinitely or cancelled, leaving a platted 'school site' that stays empty.
Q: How can I find out if a neighborhood's planned school will actually be built?
A: Check directly with the school district (not just the developer's marketing), look at the district's approved capital and bond plans, and review the community's official development documents. A school shown on a plat map is not a guarantee. Ask when the site was dedicated and whether it is in a funded construction plan.
Q: Does a missing neighborhood school hurt my home's value?
A: It can. Buyers often pay a premium for the convenience and perceived quality of a nearby school. If a promised school never materializes, kids may be bused farther away, which can make the home slightly less attractive to family buyers compared to areas with established, walkable schools.
Q: What happens to the vacant land where the school was supposed to go?
A: It varies. The land may be held by the district for a future project, sold off for other development, or converted to a park or other public use. If it gets rezoned or sold to a private developer, that can change the character of the immediate neighborhood, so it is worth confirming the current designation before buying nearby.
Q: Should this stop me from buying in a South Denver community?
A: Not necessarily. It just means you should verify school assignments with the district before you buy rather than relying on a sign or a brochure. If schools matter to you, prioritize areas with existing, well-rated schools already open and operating, and treat any 'future school' as a bonus rather than a certainty
