Littleton Public Schools


Littleton Public Schools is a school district in Littleton, Colorado which serves several communities within the southern Denver metropolitan area. It is governed by a five-member Board of Education, and administered by a superintendent and four executives. Its headquarters, the Education Services Center, is located in Downtown Littleton. It is the fifteenth largest school district in Colorado. LPS operates 13 elementary schools, four middle schools, three high schools, several alternative programs, a preschool, and two charter schools.

History

In 1889, Littleton Public Schools was officially incorporated with the State of Colorado. It was established in the fall of 1864 when residents of the South Platte Valley voted to establish a public school district, the boundaries of which extended from what is now Sheridan Boulevard thirty miles east to the Kansas territorial line. The first president of the school district was Lewis B. Ames, for whom an elementary school and administrative building are now named. In the winter of 1864, construction of the first school, a log cabin, was completed. In 1868, Littleton's second school, a frame building, was erected on the Lilley Ranch west of the Platte River. In 1873 the Rapp Avenue School was built, a one-room, brick structure with one teacher and 70 students. Littleton Public Schools then grew exponentially, experiencing the most growth during the "baby boom" era. Most LPS schools were built between 1950 and the late 1970s.

Achievements

LPS is the only school district in the Denver Metro Area that is "Accredited With Distinction" by the Colorado Department of Education. It is one of very few schools to have maintained this level of accreditation since the inception of this rating system. All three LPS high schools have been featured in US News "Best High Schools", Newsweek magazine’s "Top High Schools in America" and 528 magazine’s "Top High Schools in Denver." LPS has the lowest dropout rate and highest graduation rate of any school district in the Denver Metro Area. In 2013, Security Magazine ranked LPS 11th best in the nation for school security.