Half way into a letter called “Lessons on Education,” Sue Desmond-Hellman, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, admits that the foundation “underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the <Common Core> standards.”

This mild acknowledgment doesn’t begin to address the chaos that descended on public schools across the nation from the pervasively incompetent delivery of Common Core. Desmond-Hellman says in the same letter, “[W]e’re facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make system-wide change.” Unfortunately, hubris teaches its lessons after the damage is done.

It may not be too late to prevent an exercise in hubris in Jefferson County schools. Superintendent Dan McMinimee and Steve Bell, the district’s chief operating officer, have proposed a $420 million physical plant upgrade that includes boundary changes, new schools, sixth-graders in middle school, closing schools and capital construction on existing schools.

The proposal captures needs from as far back as 2009, when district officials worked with a citizens committee on a $300 million plan that went nowhere because of the Great Recession.

This time, McMinimee and Bell cut out early citizen input. Instead, after the plan’s introduction, they set up feedback sessions starting in April with many scheduled after the school year is over. This top-down rather than bottom-up planning process puts the school board in an untenable position.

Let’s assume that $420 million will set the district’s facilities landscape well into the 2040s. New schools and fixed-up schools will house for decades whatever changes occur in education delivery, including new technology, open v. walled classrooms, learning stations v. tables and desks, etc. The buildings must also provide spaces for innovative college and career prep programs. It’s safe to assume that new science and engineering equipment and schools without textbooks will become common.

The district hasn’t given parents and teachers in articulation areas – elementary and middle schools feeding into high schools – an opportunity to examine what programs they want to offer to prepare children for their futures. Foreign language learning, English/Language Arts, core knowledge, Gifted and Talented, STEM, the arts, and athletics can all benefit from a fresh look at where, when and how they’ll be provided.

The district’s failure to have conversations with residents before offering its recommendations damages its proposals from the get-go. McMinimee and Bell are operating on an outdated assumption: give something to everyone so a bond will pass.

The bond request itself is difficult to analyze. According to district estimates, the $420 million loan will turn into roughly $740 million in repayment over 20 years. With interest rates so low, it’s hard to understand how the bond ends up costing $320 million more than the initial borrowing unless early payments are too low to cover the principal plus interest.

The Jeffco school board should go back to its constituents and have discussions about how the district’s physical plant will support 21st century public education. Without public buy-in, the bond proposal is likely to go down in an election. That’s the lesson of hubris.

Paula Noonan was a Jeffco school board member from 2009-2013 and .