The History of Adams 12 Five Star Schools

In 1902, the district’s first school opened with 48 students. The Westlake School, in what was then School District 34 before becoming a part of what is now Adams 12 Five Star Schools, included grades one through eight. One teacher was hired to teach all grades and was paid $50 per month. Westlake School originally had a coal furnace and two double outhouses outside the school that served as the only bathrooms. However, the old Westlake School was one of the first rural districts in the area to have its own hot lunch program. After students completed the eighth grade, the district paid tuition for students to attend high school in Lafayette, Colorado. The building, which still exists next to the Paul Derda Recreation Center in Broomfield, was used in different contexts for the district, including an alternative high school in the 1970s. The district sold the building in 1994.

In 1910 a railroad was built 20 miles east of Westlake. The population in the area began to increase so Eastlake School was erected in 1920 to accommodate 110 students. A bond election for $25,000 was held on March 31, 1919, to finance construction. The school included all 12 grades, graduating its first class in 1923. At first there were only two teachers, one for grades one through eight, another for grades nine through 12. Eventually the school expanded to include four classrooms and five teachers: one primary, two junior high, one high school, and one principal who also taught.

The original Eastlake School District 12 was organized in 1919 by consolidating the old Block School (East 120th and Colorado Blvd.) with the old Webster School (East 112th and Washington).

By 1950, our area was still very rural. There was no I-25 back then - the Valley Highway did not reach 120th St. until roughly 1955. In July of 1950, at the district's first board meeting, voters decided to form the present Adams County School District 12 by consolidating several smaller rural districts into one. All of District 20 Hutchinson and District 34 Westlake with parts of District 12 Eastlake, District 6 Burn Lee, District 16 Welby and District 27 Brighton. The remaining parts of Districts 6, 12, 16 and 27 went to District 27J Brighton. The district included schools such as Westlake, Burkley, Hutchinson, Webster, Buchkoltzs, and Pleasant View.

By 1953, Adams 12 had grown to 238 students and 11 teachers housed in two schools, Eastlake and Westlake. Westlake, in 1954, took grades six through nine; this left grades one through five to Eastlake; grades ten through 12 still went to neighboring high schools. In 1956, grades one through six went to Eastlake.

The new district included approximately sixty-two and a half square miles and encompassed all or parts of four cities and part of unincorporated Adams County: Northglenn, the major part of Thornton, parts of Broomfield and Westminster, as well as part of unincorporated Adams County. The district began serving students in Federal Heights at the opening of Federal Heights Elementary in 1973.

From 1950 to 1970, population in the area increased 400 percent. In the 1970s, the population of Adams County grew at a 34 percent rate. In 1988, the district was renamed Adams 12 Five Star Schools and had nearly 21,000 students, 35 schools and 1,291 teachers.

^{Source: Liane Brouillette, School of Education, University of Colorado, Boulder}

Superintendents

2009 - Present
Mr. Christopher Gdowski

2003 - 2009
Mr. Michael Paskewicz

2000-2003
Mr. Jim Christiansen

1994-2000
Dr. Judy Margrath-Huge

1982- 1994
Dr. James Mitchell

1972 - 1982
Dr. George Bailey

1954- 1972
Mr. Daniel Stukey

Read More

• History of Adams 12 Five Star Schools
• History of the formation of the Adams County area
• History of the early years and cities of Adams 12 Five Star Schools
• Adams 12 Five Star Schools 50th Anniversary Program and Information