Flatirons is so much more than a school. It is the heart of a neighborhood. We live three blocks away, and both of our children walked to Flatirons from kindergarten through fifth grade. Those walks became part of the rhythm of our family: along the creek, picking plums from neighbors’ bushes, talking about our days. When we moved here, we knew no one. Some of our closest lifelong friendships were made through Flatirons. There is something incredibly special about a small neighborhood school where children walk from the surrounding streets, families linger after pickup, and friendships grow into community. Flatirons gave our children an extraordinary elementary education, but it gave our entire family something just as important: a deep sense of belonging. Once a neighborhood school like this is gone, you cannot simply recreate what has grown there over generations. Closing Flatirons would be an enormous and heartbreaking loss for our children, our neighborhood, and the Boulder community.