Former Superintendent Brian Ewert ended his eight-year tenure on June 30, following almost a decade of sweeping change across Littleton Public Schools that coincided with a shifting educational landscape as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread under enrollment, and political rifts in surrounding districts. 

With an in-shape budget, a non-partisan board of education, and a strong staff in the superintendent’s office, Ewert thinks the district is in the right place for a big change.

“If the district was in crisis, I would not retire,” Ewert said.

During his time with the district, Ewert oversaw the passage of a major bond in 2018 and a mill levy override in 2020, increases in teacher pay, major school renovations, and the creation of a career and technical education center to be opened this fall. 

As he passes the torch to Dr. Todd Lambert, who began as superintendent on July 1, Ewert is ready to depart after expending so much stress and energy managing the district during the pandemic.

“Those were really, really challenging years for administration, for central office, for principals, and for teachers,” Ewert said. “I had used so much energy, and it was such a challenging time that I really felt like I gave everything that I could to lead the district. Honestly, it felt like my tank was running dry, and I didn’t want to be the guy who continued to come to work with an empty tank.”

Ewert said he was “always hoping to get 10 [years] in Littleton,” and that he likely would have stayed an extra two were it not for the pandemic’s impact on schools.

“I won’t miss the work. I will absolutely miss the people,” he said.

The board is seeing significant changes as well, with longtime member and president for almost two years, Robert Reichardt, preparing to leave when he finishes his second term. 

Although Reichardt’s term is not quite over, he has already passed the presidential baton to Angela Christensen, who has served on the board since 2021, to aid the transition.

Reichardt said the changes in the superintendent’s office and on the board are by no means indicative of district issues, noting turbulence in neighboring school districts.

“This is kind of the normal flow of districts,” Reichardt said of the turnover. “There’s a lot of districts in our area that are having a lot of problems, and I think we’re not one of them.”

This fall, two spots on the board—those currently held by Reichardt and Lindley McCrary—are up for reelection. Reichardt is termed out, but McCrary is running for reelection.

Reichardt described Ewert as a “change agent,” noting his modification to professional learning community meeting operations for instructional improvement strategy, as well as one of Ewert’s most visible changes: school start times.

Ewert’s administration also saw the complete rebuilding of Newton Middle School, the opening of Ford and Gaskill elementary schools, and redrawn school boundaries.

The new schools largely served to consolidate several under enrolled schools which have closed over the years. These include Moody, East, Highland, Franklin, Peabody, Ames, Whitman, and Twain elementary schools.

“It’s a challenge and declining enrollment is not going to stop,” Ewert said. 

A new era

Lambert comes to the district from a superintendent post in Indiana, having previously worked in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins. He has 29 years of experience in education.

As for the district under the leadership of Lambert, Reichardt thinks he will “settle the change that [Ewert] has put in place.”

Lambert knows the district is at a turning point, with dropping enrollment across the Denver metro area as a result of an increasingly difficult real estate market for young families as well as a dropping birth rate in the country. 

According to Lambert, district leadership will be having conversations regarding school boundary changes, as some schools are on the “edge of capacity” and others are under enrolled. 

“We're going to be making some big decisions in the next 12 to 18 months regarding how we position kids in the district and where people go to school. Those are always sensitive, difficult issues to address,” he said. “So, we want to be careful, thoughtful, and do them in a transparent way.”

The core mission of the district is unchanged, as Lambert plans to continue Ewert’s work with a focus on student success.

“One hundred percent of our students are going to graduate prepared for meaningful post- secondary opportunities,” Lambert said. “That work starts with our preschool.”

Although the goal is unchanged, these opportunities look different than a decade ago, and Lambert plans on positioning students for success in an “increasingly automated world.”

“I would certainly want my legacy to be someone who positioned us for the future,” he said.

Ewert said the district is “behind the eight ball” when it comes to preparing students for post-secondary opportunities that do not necessarily involve going to college. 

The Explorative Pathways for Innovative Careers Campus — dubbed the EPIC Campus — has been built across the street from Littleton High School, and will offer high school students an opportunity to study professional pathways, earn high school and college credit, and receive industry certificates.

“We are really, really good at sending kids to college, but what we know now and moving forward is that college was the thing for my generation to do,” Ewert said. “You went to high school, you went to college, you got a degree. That's not necessarily the case any longer and that's okay.”

In addition to the district’s academic ambitions, Lambert sees necessary improvements that must be made to the buildings themselves.

“We have great facilities, but they’re not brand new,” he said. “And as facilities get older, deferred maintenance issues that are associated costs associated with that work become very expensive.”

First and foremost, Lambert is focused on getting to know the community and the people he will be working with. He has been regularly meeting with Ewert, Reichardt, and Christensen for several months to prepare for the transition, and is planning on visiting schools this fall once classes start. 

“I don’t intend to do all my work from this office. I plan to be out to get to know the kids, our staff, our leaders, I think it’s important that the superintendent remain visible in the schools,” Lambert said. “Brian was very visible, and I plan to continue that same tradition.”

Pandemic recovery and politics

Lambert is confident that student academic performance will show improvement after taking an initial hit during periods of online and hybrid learning. The district is preparing to evaluate student outcomes from the 2022-23 school year, and Lambert expects that evaluation to reflect an upward trend.

“We’re starting to make those gains back, we’re starting to recover,” he said. “I think our biggest concern is more of a social-emotional impact on that work and then how that impacts academic performance.”

Another stressor of the pandemic was the intrusion of partisan politics into school districts, many of which became a political battleground as a central point of controversial COVID-19 policy.

As Ewert departs, he maintains that it is essential to keep politics out of district administration and off the board.

“It’s really, really crucial that [the board] keep partisan politics out of our school district. They’ve done a great job so far, but it always seems to be lingering at the edges,” Ewert said. 

In noting the rifts within the Jefferson County and Douglas County school districts, Ewert added, “All of those political pressures are absolutely damaging to public education. Damaging to teachers, damaging to administrators, nobody wants to work in that environment.”

As Christensen assumes the presidency of the board, she is prepared to continue the district’s tradition of separating politics from district management.

“It’s scary how quickly a board can be overturned because of partisan politics,” she said. “I really would prefer not to know where any of my colleagues sit on the political spectrum, because when we walk into that boardroom, I really hope that we leave politics at the door, and that we are there for students.”

Tough decisions

If declining enrollment is here to stay, the impact will not remain only at the elementary level, according to Ewert. Between 2012 and 2020, district enrollment declined by 9 percent overall, and 12 percent at the elementary level, district numbers show.

“We’ve closed many, many schools over the past 10 to 15 years, and now it’s going to impact middle schools and high schools as well,” Ewert said. “The challenge will be, you know, how do you manage that without tearing up neighborhoods and communities? It’s always a volatile conversation when you have to shift boundaries or close schools.”

As for shuttering middle and high schools, Ewert said that the district is “not quite there yet.” Declining enrollment is starting to impact these schools, but as of now, “the numbers don’t quite work out” to begin school consolidation at the middle and high school level.

Right now, the district will remain focused on redrawing boundary lines to control fluctuating school populations, according to Lambert.

“I don’t see us closing or doing anything like that with middle schools or high schools in the near future,” Lambert said. “I see us using the population shifts, the boundary changes as our first course of action.”