I recently worked with a very nice couple that is going to be moving to the Denver suburbs from out of state. They had three children and although they are very young right now, they plan on staying here for quite some time so they had a lot of questions about the schools in the Denver area.
The communities that they were considering were all in the south Denver suburbs - all in Douglas County - they were Highlands Ranch, Castle
Pines and Lone Tree. They had heard and read a little about the Douglas County Schools - they already knew that it was rated in many different facets as an excellent school district, but they were still a bit confused about the Track System.
I directed them to several blog posts I have written in the past about the Track School System schedule for Douglas County Schools. They said that they did help them understand it better and so I link to them for you as well. You can find them here and here.
In a nutshell, as Douglas County experienced tremendous growth a decision was made to implement a year round school schedule at the 
elementary grades and split into 4 sections. 3/4 of the students would be in - and 1/4th out - off-track. This allowed the schools to house 25% more students in a building than they would normally. Now why? Well the big reason is - once enrollment levels off - they certainly didn't want unused space in buildings that were too big built during high growth patterns. Trailers have been used to offset even more growth that the tracks can handle but all in all it seems that things are starting to change.
Last year for the 2007 - 2008 school year - 23 elementary schools are on the track system, 2 are a modified year round schedule and 16 are on the traditional/conventional schedule - so more on track than not. Now there have been a few more new schools that have opened this year than last, so the total number is not the same however you will see the change.
For the 2008 - 2009 school year - 16 elementary schools in Douglas County are on a track schedule, 19 are on a modified calendar, and 13 are on a conventional schedule. From last year to this year - 10 elementary schools in Douglas County switched from the track schedule to the modified schedule. And only 2 switched to a track schedule. So all in all, for this school year that has just begun - there are 16 on the track schedule and 32 on a modified or conventional schedule.
So what does this mean if you are relocating to Douglas County? You may have heard about the track system - but that doesn't mean you are going to be on it. This year more schools are not on it than are.
Another important thing to note - things change from year to year for a variety of reasons including enrollment numbers. Schedules can change. You can see that by noting that 2 schools did switch TO a track system. Just because your home school is or isn't on it now - you need to talk to you individual school or the Douglas County School District to get a feel for the future plans for your school.
Ad lastly, yes, it is true that if your school is on tracks the year has already started. In fact this week C track will wrap up their first round and go off track and B will go back next week! Schools on the modified and conventional schedules, as well as the middle schools and high schools have a little pool time left.
Want to find out what schedule your home school is on? Check here. In fact, that link has all kinds of great info - such as how tracks 
are assigned, boundary maps, kindergarten enrollment information, policies, athletic and activities information, school day times and much more.
And what areas are the Douglas County Schools anyway - that would be Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Parker, Larkspur, Sedalia, Franktown and parts of Littleton (such as Roxborough, Province Center, WildCat Ridge).
Hope that helps clear up some of those school schedule questions when you are relocating to Douglas County. If you have specific questions about any school issues or enrollment it is always best to contact the school or the school district.
Steve Scheer, RE/MAX Masters, Inc.
Real Estate in Denver & The Suburbs
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Steve--Though this sounds like a confusing system for someone from the outside, I am certain that the Denver school board looked at the educational benefits of the tracks program, I would bet it is a lot closer to year round education and children don't have that backslide with a very long summer break. So in addition to the financial savings there is an educational benefit to the program. In MN it is close to 3 month off in the summer for most districts which is a very long time for elementary students. There are many school districts looking at implementing cost saving programs. One school in out-state MN was just approved to have a 4 day schedule to save on transportation costs. The key to understanding the benefits of a different school system is finding a Realtor who knows the area...Like yourself! Your nice couple was fortunate that you know so much about the Denver area schools!