Evergreen High School will remain closed for the next week as the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the school shooting that injured two students last week.

The high school — located at 29300 Buffalo Park Road — will be closed from Sept. 15 to 19, with plans to return to school set to be finalized and announced later this week, according to Jeffco Public Schools.

The closure comes on the heels of the Sept. 10 shooting that rocked the area. Around 12:30 p.m., 16-year-old student Desmond Holly allegedly entered the school with a revolver and began shooting at his classmates.

Two students, including 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone, were critically injured. No updates on their health have been announced since the shooting. Holly then shot and killed himself, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

“The suspect’s gun was fired a lot,” Jacki Kelley, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, emphasized, adding that they are lucky more students were not injured.

Last week, 10 schools in the district closed as a result of the shooting, but all have returned except Evergreen High School.

Full-time SRO on staff

The lack of a full-time school resource officer (SRO) at the high school raised questions and concerns last week following the shooting, but the sheriff’s office said the school will have a full-time officer on staff when classes resume.

The full-time SRO of the 900-student school was on medical leave at the time of the shooting. Meanwhile, a deputy who assumed those policing duties on a part-time basis was working on a traffic crash nearby, the police said.

“Horrible timing, of course,” Kelley said of the full-time deputy’s medical leave.

The sheriff’s office required the municipalities to pay 50% of the SROs’ salaries last year, according to Jeffco Public School’s April FY 2025-26 budget development update.

In the new budget, the district is expected to pay more than $2.2 million to replace municipal funding for 50% of its 38 SROs and three sergeants on staff.

There are 145 schools in the district.

Dr. Skyler Artes, the Evergreen High School principal, told parents that “mountain schools have been deprioritized, and resources are shared.” She said the school “was deprioritized because we are a small mountain town with less crime than the schools down the hill with SROs.”

The Denver Gazette’s news partner, 9News, contributed to this report.