LITTLETON, Colo. -- An attorney hired by parents at Littleton’s Ames Elementary has sent a letter to the Littleton Public Schools board of education.

The letter states the board is violating due process by closing two schools that excel academically.

The district said this is about declining enrollment, but parents disagree.

According to the LPS, enrollment at Ames has actually increased from just over 200 students in 2007/2008, to about 230 children this year (2008-09).

But district spokeswoman Diane Leiker said the increase is because Ames added free full-day kindergarten this year.

Leiker said 141 students who live in the Ames attendance area actually go to other schools and "there are no indications of this reversing."

"Ames has had a consistent pattern of declining enrollment for more than 10 years. Ames has been under 300 students for 6 years and has been below 350 students for 8 years," she said.

Parents say the criteria for closing schools and the facts about the two schools closing contradict one another.

Doug McBride has a first grader and kindergartner attending Ames.

"I will enroll my children outside the LPS district if they close Ames," said McBride.

McBride and several other parents at Ames have pitched in thousands of dollars to hire an attorney to save their school.

“The attorney’s current duty is to alert the school board’s attorney that we feel that the school board has violated due process,” said McBride.

“The enrollment as they state is decreasing at Ames and that is not a fact,” said parent Amy Anthony. “The facts are enrollment has increased at least 14 percent.”

Parents now hope to present other options to the board aside from shutting down Ames.

“Repurposing the school or utilizing the school in a different manner, such as whether to turn it into a magnet school or a magnet within a school or a charter,” said attorney and Ames parent Lee Freedman.

At Ames, 100 percent of fifth grade girls are proficient in reading. “It has become a literacy program being utilized throughout the entire district,” said Freedman.

Parents at Whitman Elementary are fighting the district as well.

"We've got a good thing going on here. The teachers are amazing, they've been here for many years," said Rachelle Milligan. Her two older children attend Whitman. She hopes her two younger children can do the same. "We're a little frustrated with the whole thing. We feel like it's been very rushed."

"Why are they just chopping up the kids here? Why don't they consider (making Whitman) a K-8?" questioned Whitman parent Merilee Ashton. "It just feels like they're picking on a couple of schools."

But it’s Ames parents that appear most outspoken, even suggesting favoritism is at play.

“It’s very difficult to deny the fact that it’s probably hard on the board to vote to close a school that’s going to affect their own property value,” said Anthony. Board president Bob Colwell lives in a zone south of Dry Creek Road that sits in the Highland Elementary designated area. However, the zone is geographically much closer to Ames Elementary than Highland. The board considered closing Highland, but has since removed it from the list.

“I believe in Ames, I believe in the staff here. I think it’s a great school,” said McBride.

Parents also suggest redrawing school boundaries as another option.

A 2006 demographics and elementary enrollment report indicates Littleton’s imbalances in certain areas are affecting school utilization.

The report suggests more even distribution of student populations.

The superintendent said in a letter sent home to parents the long-term pattern of declining enrollment at Ames and Whitman is very likely to continue.

The superintendent said this will make it difficult to financially support the current level of educational opportunities at those schools.