Board of Education January 7, 2026 Regular Meeting

001There it We will we will start here All right. >> Thanks. Another here. What were you supposed to up here for days. So, I'm missing Let me call the meeting to >> order. >> All right. Very good. So, we'll call this January meeting of the AR school district board director order and we'll start with a roll call. >> Mr. Iverson >> here, >> Mr. Here, Mr. Mackey here, >> Mr. Sh. And Mr. T >> here. And then we will open with the flag back there. >> Thank you. We have an agenda for tonight's meeting and published a motion to approve for them. I move that we accept the agenda as published item motion. We have a second. >> Any discussions? Anyone Mr. Iverson? Mr. Hi Mr. Mackey. Hi Mrs. Sh and Mr. Hi. Motion carries

002have agenda. Um just speaking briefly about the agenda. You know we will have a couple comment coming up here in a minute. We have people want to comment. We are going to talk in more depth tonight about the uh site options. This is all still in the exploratory phase. still learning and having more facts and tonight in particular each the board members are also going to weigh in on what we see as all the strengths and concerns of the site. It isn't a decision making meeting tonight. It's more what exploration and a chance for us to make some of our some of our thinking visible to the public. So that's up to as we move along. So we'll do the consent agenda then we have comments. consent agenda is before you with separate claims. >>

003I'm sorry, Mr. Lynch. >> Yeah. >> And approval of please. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> We have two minutes from meeting on December 8th, the regular board meeting on December 9th. >> Mr. President that we move to December 9th regularly work session motion without any corrections we have second >> second >> Mr. Iverson >> hi >> Mr. Hi >> Mr. Mackey >> hi >> Mr. Hi >> and Mr. All right. Motion carries. Now >> we don't have any hirings or anything. >> One hire motion to approve. We have a second. >> Any discussion? >> Mr. Hi, >> Mr. Hi, >> Mr. Sh. >> Mr. Taylor, >> I motion carries through. So, now we're take and listen to public comment. Uh we we were a little looser on our public comment uh guidelines during our board

004session. So we ran let those run a little long and had a little back and forth. So now that we're back in regular meeting format, we'll we'll follow our protocols a little tighter. We're not going to cut you off, but we realize he's pretty pretty close to the three minute mark. So I'll have give our policy and guidelines on how starting. The board welcomes the comments of our community members, but to ensure that everyone will have an opportunity to participate, we have a few ground rules we ask you to follow. Anyone intending to address the board shall sign the speaker signin sheet at the front of the boardroom. Speakers will be called in order which they are listed on the sign-in sheet. Speakers comments are limited to three minutes with a total time of 30

005minutes. To be respectful of everyone's time, we ask that you cover only points not previously made. The board will listen carefully to your comments, but are not able to respond during this time. While we cannot limit individuals constitutional rights to express themselves, we also remind speakers that you are each responsible for your own speech. In order to respect all persons, when addressing the board, we request that the speaker address issues rather than people. The board will listen with respect and ask those who address the board to speak in a respectful. First, we have Kelly. Hello, Kelly Ton. Um, I'm here tonight to focus on one specific factual concern regarding the site location decision. A few days ago, a school district communication shared by the Pagosa Sun as well as on the school district Facebook page

006displayed a graphic with simple pros and cons comparing the two site locations. I noticed traffic congestion was listed as a con of a downtown campus choice. However, the traffic study commissioned for this decision actually favored a downtown school location due to the existing street grid, pedestrian infrastructure, and multiple access routes, which better support traffic flow. As presented at the November 17th impact meeting, that study projected only about a 10% increase on a street during the drop off and pickup times of school. An increase, it said, could be cleared with a 30 secondond signal adjustment on Highway 160. In addition, the civil engineering executive summary memo available online to the public on the impact website includes a traffic comparison matrix on page three. And this shows the cost to the district to mitigate the identified traffic

007concerns are much lower for a downtown campus. Traffic impacts have been a reoccurring concern in this debate and rightfully so with our experiences with highway construction through town. I know there are many other points to consider in this decision, but when a point as important as this is presented without the study's findings, it risks shaping public perception in a way that isn't fully supported by the evidence before you. My request is simply that public facing summaries accurately reflect the district's own studies or include the necessary context so that the community can engage with this decision in an important way. Audrey left me some judgment of the board and attendees. My name is Audrey Bliss and my husband and I, Kirk, own Rosy's Pizzeria as well as the ice cream shop, Bliss Foods and Sweets Downtown.

008I'm here to talk mainly about what I feel is the impact on the business structures within the downtown area and how the move would affect that. Um I don't want to be in your seat. That's going to be a very hard thing that you guys are dealing with. And we really appreciate the time and letting us share our views. Um when Kirk and I first moved to Pagosa in 2019, um our realers were like, "Well, you have to choose between downtown and uptown. Which one do you want to be closer to? Which one do you want to be more of a part of?" And coming from Denver, I was like, "Well, how far of a drive is it uptown?" like six minutes. So six minutes to me was like, wait, what? That's not a big

009deal. And now on a daily, especially with all the traffic concerns going on with the construction, but even prior to that, I heard people say, if I don't have three things to do downtown, I don't go downtown. I sometimes became a habit of that myself. Um, now that I work down here, I come down a lot, but if I didn't have to use the post office, do something at the school, or go somewhere, I would I would stay up town. uptown. My concerns are with the business structure downtown is we are spending so much time, money, and effort right now into bettering the downtown area. The sidewalks are going to be phenomenal. As painful it is it is right now to a business owner, it's going to be amazing to be able to sit outside,

010sit under some trees. The wide sidewalks are going to be widened. It's going to take on a whole new concept of what our original pagosa looks like. I feel like if the move transpires again, we're going to have people say, "I'm only going to go downtown if I have to." And that's not only going to affect the businesses downtown, it's going to affect the structure of the town itself. What's going to happen to Oldtown? Uptown's going to, you know, present stronger. Will we get left behind downtown? Will it become a separation of economy and balance? Um, right now I love seeing all the middle schoolers come over after school on Fridays. Sometimes on the weekdays they come in with their parents as a celebration. Something they've done great. The teachers come in and get gift

011cards for their students and say, "Hey, this goal you met is here." I love seeing the those football players come in with their little not little but jersey and come in and all sit around and see which boy are they girls are they sitting by this week or what candy do they want in. um seeing them use their credit cards, they've used money that they've saved for doing chores and coming up and do I have enough this list? Is there enough for that? Sometimes they don't and it's okay. But it's fun to see them establish um the way of supporting a small town business. Right now, it is even hard for them to get around the corner to come down onto the main streets. Now that Goodman exit is cleared up, we're seeing much more

012foot traffic come back again to the shop and has increased our sales, especially on Friday. I really feel that while the move would be shiny and new and offer some things uptown, we have to be careful as a community to establish that we are whole as a whole town, uptown, downtown, Midtown, and how can we support all of those things together and support our youth. I really do feel that is a safety issue as well. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate your comment. Thank you. >> Thanks, Rep. Hello there. Um, I think I'd like to just first point out that we are uh meeting downtown at the moment. We're not meeting in the PLOA office. Um, and it's not to say that, you know, the PLO office isn't great, but it's technically for PLPA members,

013which is where the property currently sits. Um, I'd like to just kind of highlight a couple of geographic opportunities, educational opportunities downtown San Juan River. You know, within that there's hydro geology, fish habitat, biology, invertebrate studies, you know, so many different things that our students can benefit from. I don't think anybody's suggesting moving the Sanon River uptown. The hot springs, geology, geothermal, hydrogeeology, geocchemistry, tourism and history. Reservoir hill, forestry, wildlife mitigation, um or wildfire mitigation rather, wildlife, biking, hiking, running, etc. Um the existing sports fields, trails, and parks, well, they're all downtown. uh job experience opportunities in retail at the movie theater, which I in fact worked at myself as a high schooler here. Um I actually I think the last time I was in this building I was probably 12. So um there's really

014no formal publicly posted survey um on site selection. So I feel that the community hasn't really had a chance to give input on site selection. Um there are newspaper articles on site selection but no real survey question that I saw that specifically addressed site selection. Um traffic modeling study uh as I understand there is a traffic modeling study. Uh but I'd like to see that more formally posted uh to the the website with RLA um and you know to show what that the the impacts of that traffic modeling study uh building costs and further site consideration. Uh I didn't really see anything any discussion on using the existing kind of athletic fields near the elementary school as a potential site. And I feel that you could potentially build a K through8 school there and then

015eventually uh knock down the the existing elementary school for sports fields basically without impacting the students while building. Um I'd like you guys to consider long-term costs. For instance, building into a hillside near the high school could help with insulation and heating costs throughout time. Um, there's also a potential geothermal uh resources that could be utilized downtown that are not uptown. There's actually an excellent uh uh school of mind study on geothermal in this area. So, if anybody's interested in that, uh there's quite a bit of information on geothermal. Uh passive solar or photoic is another one. Um and then basically revenue opportunities is another one I'd like you all to consider. selling this property for instance in order to uh support other you know school building techniques. I mean this is a downtown very

016commercially viable property that you could use to leverage you know either buying property or the space needed for your school. >> Thank you. >> Do you have one more point? >> I do have one more point. >> I I'll wrap it up quickly. And then the only other thing I wanted to mention was future downtown transportation needs haven't really seemed to be addressed in this. So, I'd like to see the study include uh you know, basically building new roads down into Pagosa. So, for instance, connecting Pedro Road across into the Alpha area, connecting that into basically Trillo Road or utilizing the properties west of the elementary school for better access to the campuses downtown. Okay, that's all I have to say. Thank you all. Darren Lou, >> Darren Lewis, um just really great comments that

017have already occurred. Same thing that I was going to say to be honest with you, you know, just as a reminder really. um had five kids go through this school district, you know, and just simply knowing the education that they got here, not only in the classroom, but for the teachers to be able to say, "Hey class, let's go out. Let's go explore Red Hill. Let's go over to the park." We have this incredible connectivity of trails that can lead you to lots of wonderful destinations downtown for for kids to explore and enjoy. My kids did that and things have come a long way since my kids have gone through and um and things are going to continue to grow. You know, the economic impact was mentioned earlier. I would assume you guys have thought

018about that because there will be one. What that will be, I don't know, but there will be one to these businesses downtown because once you pick up your kid up top, if you don't have two or three things to do downtown and you live up top, you're going to stay up top, pick them up down here, mom, let's go to the park because obviously our kindergarteners, our first graders and second graders aren't out there on their own. But our older, you know, fifth, six, seven, eight, you see them by themselves out there. That type of option, I guess, you know, for parents and and that familyoriented option is really what it is, you know, that it in a sense, not that you should be forced to do that with your kids. You should welcome that

019and be thankful that there's an option like that that you can do with your kids. and having this uptown. Um, I don't think those options are going to be there and I think the children are going to miss out on opportunities. Not saying that parents are going to neglect their kids and not bring them downtown. I'm simply saying there's more of an option for parents to get something else done at that point as opposed to picking up your your child and saying and Timmy goes, "Hey, let's go to Yamaguchi. Let's go to temp, you know. So, it's just things to consider because once this thing's built, it's not going anywhere, right? It's going to be here for a very, very, very long time. and you have such a huge decision on your hands and you

020know you're listening to feedback in regards to it and I know you're taking it seriously and just from what I've heard I've yet to hear and and it could be here tonight. I haven't heard that I am for that location. I haven't heard that yet. So, thank you very much. So, good evening. Um, I'm Carmen Lewis. I am actually coming at representing Rise Above Violence. I'm the executive director here in Augusta Springs serving. Um, and I'm coming for a little bit different of a reason. Um, I know that Rick Holt had uh mentioned the possibility of considering these properties, whether you're middle school or your elementary school, becoming a nonprofit hub. And just so you guys are aware, I'm hoping that you guys will seriously consider that as an option. I have spoke to several

021nonprofits in town. Um and what I envision is really having um what I see um and which is a successful model around the nation is having a nonprofit hub um where human service agencies uh really and so individuals human service agencies and nonprofits are in one location and that way your individual citizens and community members can come to one location to really streamline their needs. They can go to a food pantry. They can go enroll their kids in after school programs. they can get um job resume, you know, assistance and job search assistance. They can get my assistance with the agency we have at Rise Above Violence. And so I really envisioned and always thought that that would be something for Pugosa and with the opportunity for these buildings that could house that many nonprofits

022in um in a down downtown location would be really ideal for this vision. And so I hope that you will consider it. Um and I'd love to talk more if and when you're interested. Thank you. >> Thank you Jan. >> Hi everybody, friends, neighbors, everybody. Um, I have lived here for 50 years, seen a lot of changes. I have three children that went through the school system and eight grandchildren that are in the process of going through. Five have graduated and there's still three left. Um, so I might not be totally up on everything about this issue, but I I wanted to speak tonight because I think the most important thing we need to think about are the children and what what are we what is best for the children? And in my opinion, it's

023pretty easy to figure that out that being downtown with with all the enrichment of the river, the new water park that's going in, the renovated library. I mean, it just seems like if we're really thinking about the kids, they need to be downtown. We need to be downtown. We need to save the town um by having our kids, you know, grow up downtown. So, um let's just thank you. >> Thank you so much, Bill. Hudson 446 on the street. Um, I shift gears a little bit. What's best for the children? What's best for the children? I I didn't write this. This is uh somebody else wrote this. Colorado's sustainability education standards aren't a single document, but are integrated across the academic standards, emphasizing environmental literacy through skills like critical thinking, systems understanding, and responsible action.

024What's best for the children? Um, I thank Miss Bliss for reminding us that we are remodeling downtown. We're remodeling downtown. The biggest impact on our environment is abandoning buildings and making new buildings. That is the biggest negative impact on our environment. what what you're hearing from this audience, I I'm assuming none of them went through environmental literacy uh through our school system because they're they're encouraging unsustainable behavior on the part of this school board. Um, I'm wearing a shirt for Arosa Peak Open School. A, as you all know, uh, Pagosa Peak Open School moved into an abandoned office building for $4 million, spent a million dollars upgrading it, has now put in a million dollar playground, and none of that cost put any impact, additional impact on our taxpayers. None of it. It was done

025sustainably in in respect for our environment to take a building that was built as an office building and make it into a successful school serving K through 8. We have two buildings downtown that were built as schools and have been serving K through 8 for 50 years, 60 years to be abandoned to to build nonsustainable new buildings. Um, so I I I know you you're probably going to move ahead with this, but it's it's not it's not teaching our children about sustainability. If you go ahead and build these new schools, you're not teaching them how to recycle a downtown, how to recycle the things that are still functional and improve them. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Um, anyone come in late? Anyone want to make a comment? We're kind of open to the three

026minute expansion. Go ahead. Right. Come on. >> Yeah. Well, we supposed to sign up, I'm sure. >> Yeah, but we're stretching the rules. >> Stretching the rules just for you. just for you. >> I We only extend this to former snowboard chairman. >> Thank you. I was not prepared for this. I got a phone call from my daughter-in-law about this or Matt, my son. I can't remember who. And I just got back from Durango and they said, "Oh, there's a school board meeting tonight. Want to talk about the location?" And I thought, you know, I've got some opinions on that. I was on the school board for 10 years a few years ago. And although we never had to make the decision on uptown or downtown, I thought about it a lot because people were

027talking about it. And I grew up in this community. I went one through 12 in this community in this building here and the one right across the playground. And I love having the schools in downtown. And I really really think that's the best way to go for the kids um for the whole community. Uh there's a lot of very very good points brought up tonight by the various speakers and I think you probably have taken them all into account but I would just like to go on record as I support the downtown. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, my name is Katie Kelly. I'm a relatively new transplant pagosa from central Illinois and a mother of three-month twins and a two and a half-year-old. And so I had to leave my husband at

028home tonight with all of those. So that might be why there aren't as many voices speaking up about Uptown. A lot of moms with young children that I know wouldn't be able to come tonight. A lot of single moms live out in the Springs um Vista and are my neighbors and they can't get here. So, I will say I am for an uptown site, a lone voice, uh because I grew up with that, being able to walk and ride my bike to school. And a point that I think has been made in the past, but I didn't hear tonight is where do most of the kids live? And I think there's quite a few kids around PLOA who could be able to walk to school with their parents at that age, K through 12, or

029older kids help walk their younger siblings to school. Um, I think right across the street is the clubhouse, which is a great place for after school activities, as well as the rec center, which frankly is not maximizing its facilities for families. There's a little pond there for outdoor education. Plenty of space for outdoor classroom options that I think are fantastic. And only six minutes to downtown. If we want to have a unit on the river, I think that can be achieved. I don't know if we have to always be downtown. I don't know if everyone's accessing the river every single day for all of their units. Um, and I don't think we're abandoning downtown because high school's there. So, we will be back downtown. I personally do need to go downtown for the library for

030Aspire to go to Yamabuchi to go to the other parks. Um, I don't need to have three things to go downtown. In fact, I avoid the post office at almost although with another thing I might not be able to. Um, and I was curious. I probably missed it, but I'm curious what you think potential impact on busing is. I know we've struggled with bus drivers, but um if that adjusts the routes and helps um ease I think that burden on budget and finding drivers. Of course, some of our students are further away, so that's going to add some minutes, but for our littles, that extra 15 minutes from Aspen Springs all the way downtown does make a difference on their day. I think being that much closer is important for the younger kids. Um hopefully

031here it's not a huge issue, but I'm also concerned frankly about school safety and the proximity to those two buildings for securing them if there were to be a threat. It's real easy to jump from all ages. Hopefully we got that cracked down and it's not an issue. Um, and then lastly about congestion, it seems like that was mostly related to pickup and drop off, which again hopefully more people are using buses, so we don't have every single family driving down, but what does it look like and feel like? Sorry, on a Friday when both buildings have after school activities and all that parking is taking up just going to events down at Yamuchi, it's really congested and hard to navigate. So imagine a concert at the K building and football at the high school.

032That congestion at maximum capacity worst case scenario I think is what a lot of people are worried about. >> Thank you. >> Hey there Kathy Keys. Uh thanks for allowing me to speak. Um my points are around um of course uh economic impacts as a business owner downtown, but it's also around the cultural center. I really see downtown springs as a cultural center of our community. And I think not only um all the things that people have brought up around the river and reservoir hill and the library and all those things that reinforce each other. Having the children downtown is a reciprocal benefit for all of us. It gives us an an opportunity to have the impact of the children um on our call. We'll call it one more. Um, >> I just wanted to

033make um a comment on a huge possibility um with utilizing the high school site, especially for the elementary school. Being a parent um who's listened to lots of people talk about what's happened at the elementary school, is they're really lacking a connection with other family members. And I had this like vision of kids finishing their day. These little you know kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth where and this is the time in which community like melts and you become you find your group of people. Um so the elementary is downtown across from Yamaguchi Park. You finish your day and the same kids that were playing together move to the park and the amount of community that that's able to build with no effort from the school system at all um will tightknit our community um to

034giving everybody more sense of belonging and understanding the relationships that our kids are having. Uh so I find it very very useful to have that elementary site so close to the community uh facilities so that we are interweaving a a community that is really bonded uh by its assets. >> Hi, I'm Shaina Nickel. I've lived here for nine years. I have a second grader at the public school and um nervous. Uh I just wanted to address a couple of points that I heard um in terms of the Uptown location. Uh the the PLOA uh clubhouse and the rec center are private buildings that you need to have a membership for. And I think in the past year we might remember the PLOA rec center. They're not like super welcoming to having a lot of kids

035there. Um so that might be something to consider. Also, um in terms of safety, I would I really think it's relevant to pull crime statistics um within a one or two mile radius of each one. maybe just one mile because they're only six miles apart um of each location. And I think it's important to note that the police station is in within a tenth of a mile from the downtown location. Um the part of it that's at the city hall. Um and then the last thing I wanted to mention was that ultimately once the location is decided, this idea has to be sold to the public, right? to get them to vote to support it. And um I work uh I see about 50 different community members every week in my industry and just having

036talked about it with as many people as I can. When I mention the two sites, people just say downtown's a no-brainer. Like everyone says that. So, I just feel like if you're going to need to sell it to the public, that might also be something really important. >> So, I think we're closed then for all coming sharing your thoughts. You know that decisions been made and we're listening to everybody every day on that. So, caring about it really matters. We all know we need we all except know we need maybe need some buildings somewhere and so it's it's a tough call but we at some point or other we'll have to come together and say to the point of let's do what's right for our kids and figure out something make us all proud of

037the young people in our community. So, thanks for all your input and continue on with our meetings, but we have um more items that won't take a lot of time till we come back to this what we call master plan update. We we have some more information, but that's already scattered for us relative to costs and other factors. So, if you don't stick around, that's that's coming a little later. Right now we have a board schedule, budget calendar, etc. Whether we >> Yeah, I did make an update just now to the board schedule for the next meeting on the 21st is at 6 PM and on the schedule says 5. This this is just our normal approving regular monthly schedule with >> just update you >> just big update we have changed from the second

038Tuesday as a regular board meeting to the first Wednesday mark that first Wednesday and that's really all about kids too we have board members who are coaches and coach teams and work kids in our schools and Tuesday nights have a lot of practice, a lot of games happen on Tuesday night. So moving to Wednesdays and we have budget budget calendar updated basically the same as it were last year. Um we did add a line so that we do in early February we will need to back to go over the budget process. Other than that the steps could be and the key meeting we have coming up is January 21 approve the mid year revised the 256 once that's complete then 26 26 Anything else? the last second. >> All right. So, discussion items only. So,

039we'll have the capital improvements update. >> All right. Just going to try to project this. Next, our discussion about the new schools. This is a very boring section of tonight's meeting. So, I will try not to high center us for too long. Here we go. But as always, we've got lots of things going on across the district um in working with our facilities and uh making what we have as nice as possible and of course fixing things that inevitably break. Last month um I did mention that we had completed our playground project with the exception of the tire material which makes it all legal. Um this picture shows it kind of a little bit from the air. Um, but this is what it looks like right now and it is complete. It is legal. We

040won't get any violations on it. It was a really, really nice project. So, we're glad to have that one wrapped up. We also just over the break installed mats um on the north side of the gym. These really were put in to address uh during wrestling tournaments, they use that entire gym footprint. Um, this danger of kids hitting your head on that other wall. So, a year ago, they addressed the south end of the gym. This year, we were able to get matching mats on the north side. turned out great. It looked really, really nice. I think it's going to be an awesome improvement to that gym. We did some routine yearly maintenance on the kitchen hoods. Um, this really is not a capital improvement item, but it was something I just wanted the board

041to be aware of, especially as you go into budgeting and looking at things that this is one of those things that we have to do every year that is very, very pricey. Um, and it's just something that I have to be aware of as I work on the budgeting process. Um, these goods have been a while since they've been cleaned. Um, but they turned out really nice. This was something that was brought up to us in a fire inspection that those hoods, even though we don't technically cook in a couple of them, still have to be cleaned. So, the hoods are now compliant. They are tagged. Um, ready to go for the next time the fire department comes in and takes a look at them. Volt security system. Um, I may bring champagne to the

042meeting when this one gets done. This is a item that's we've worked really hard on it. Um, it's taken a couple of months longer than I wanted it to take. It's been a little bit more complicated to get done, but I think when it is complete, this is going to be one of those things that's going to have a really nice impact on our high school and especially from that school safety side of things. So, in December, the hardware was installed and you kind of see here where we have the little green light. That's the card reader that would allow a staff member to be able to get in and then the video reader over that where if a student needs to get into that door, they press the button, it goes to the fur

043office and they allow them in. Um, wanted to say a thank you to Shandon Carter's uh, classes of students um, in our building trades classes who are building the overhang that will keep um, snow and ice off that entryway so it's easier for kids to get in. We are down to one hurdle and this thing will be up and running. Now, for the last three months, I've said next month it's going to be done and it keeps getting pushed back. So, I'm not going to make that statement tonight, but um, next Tuesday supposedly it's going to be done and fixes. So, I'll be excited to to talk about that. Um, firing tech building. This is a picture of what that kitchen now looks like. The mitigation process has been completed. It is done. Um, and

044now uh Eric and I are working with the insurance company to determine next steps as far as where we go with selecting a contractor to be able to uh rebuild the inside of that facility. My goal is that that facility is ready to go by the beginning of school next fall. According to the insurance adjuster, we might be able to get it done a little bit quicker than that. Um, but I think uh just knowing the nature of the damage that was done there, they're probably looking at next August is the the safest bet. Um, and of course, I will have more updates on that as we go. For um I mentioned here the ADA update for our assisted listening system. Um, all auditoriums are required to have an ALS system installed in them. That's

045basically allows a person who um is hard of hearing or is utilizing um hearing aids to be able to enjoy the performance with everybody else. Um this is another one. It's not cheap, but I with as nice a system as we have in there, this was really something that needed to happen. I think whether or not um we had gone through the the ADA audit a year ago or not, this is something that needed to happen. So, I'm excited that that's going to be in. That system is on order. Um and as soon as it arrives, we will get it installed in the auditorium and ready to go. got a couple things that we are working on um as far as in the planning stage and most of my update here is surrounding um asbestous

046I mentioned a couple months ago. Uh this is one that um Josh started working on last year and definitely something that's got to be a priority for us to move forward on. Um, we did select uh, excuse me, Keystone Environmental um, was able to get us three competitive builds uh, bids for our testing and sampling, which is kind of the first step of what has to happen in updating our plans so we can determine exactly where asbestous is in the district. Um, we did select um, Keystone um, to complete that that portion of project and they will be starting the spring. We are also required to provide training for all of our individuals who could be working with asbestous in any way, shape, or form. So that means custodians um who complete a 2-hour training

047course um is supposed to happen within 90 days of their hire and then any person who might actually work with small sections um of asbestous containing material have to do an additional 14 hours. Um we are booked for two days over spring break to be able to get that in so that once again we're in compliance. Um this first training session I'm asking uh our asbestous management planner Matt Valdez to run the training but then when that's done and I've seen it done I'll purchase the materials and be able to provide that training myself going forward so we don't have to bring in a a consult time. And then the last thing on asbestous that I'll mention um is that any so school district that has any buildings that have asbests in them are required

048to provide a yearly notification that goes out to families, staff members, basically anyone who potentially reviews that building just to say there are asbestous in our buildings. We have asbestous management plans in place and we take seriously protecting that asbestous and taking care of it. So those plan uh notifications will be going out later this month uh with the district newsletter so that once again that you're in compliance with that requirement. >> Um >> Jason, a quick question. >> Yes. >> Is the high school be included in this? Do we are we checking the high school? >> Believe it or not, we are. Yes. >> Yeah. Basically, the way the state looks at it is that so the high school was built long after they stopped using asbestous. But what the what they're finding is

049that there's lots of places where asbestous is not supposed to be and they're discovering that it is. And so basically until we have the materials tested and can prove that it does not have asbestous in it, the state they read they basically say it's hot. You know, we have to assume that it is. And so um the high school has to be tested with the exact same veracity as the rest of our buildings even though we truly believe that there is no best asbestous in that structure. Um last thing I'll mention is that kind of in line with Eric's comments about budget we are starting our process of getting capital improvement projects ready for next year and kind of working through that budgeting process. um starting with meeting with principles, maintenance team, kind of the

050stakeholders who are working in these buildings to determine what are the projects that need to be done. Um this year has been a little bit interesting in those conversations because we are kind of filtering through uh with the fact that we are hoping that we get a bond pass next fall and and be working on moving into newer buildings. We'll be a little bit careful that we're fiscally responsible not to spend a tremendous amount of money on a structure that that we're hoping is going to um maybe not be in the district in a couple of years. So, uh, we are working through that process right now and in the next couple months we'll be solidifying those plans and letting you know what's on the docket for next year. >> Any other questions for Jason?

051Thank you, Jason. >> As usual, thank you. >> Thank you. We'll move on to the cash flow update and revis it. You know, just quick update on the cash flow with December's actual place. Our revenue were lower than expected and our expenditures were higher than projected. Uh which leaves us at the end of February with just a little 5 million of available cash after we get through February payroll before we see the big payments. Um just for reference in September when we looked at these numbers that was a little over three million. So now we're under 1.5. So we still do look positive to be able to make it through February with what we have. Um I did make contact yesterday with RBC in Denver to start discussions on the serious loan program. If we

052do apply for that, it has to be by the end of May of this year, which at that point cash flow for February of 27 will be unknown number, but we'll at least get the discussion started so we can see what's be considered and I I'll make a comment about the the tightness of that budget now is strictly a function of in our county or state local dollars match together. Our county contributes about 80% of our even >> 91 right to 91 which is really an extraordinary ratio. Counties contributing 90% funds for the schools. A lot of schools are trying to get the kids but for various reasons in the calculation and and what it's done over the years that means they're using our reserves local taxes in March. district is a really healthy financial

053spot. So, we have the reserves to be able to use that. But it gets you close to being not gets close to down there at a lower much lower level of reserves before revenues start coming in March. >> Right. >> And for reference, five years ago, it was 55% local to 45% state. We're now 91% local and 9%. That's a big change like when you run pretty close to 5050 all that all that interesting how the state formulas work our local taxpayers almost all then let us go on to the next so the next one is on the revised budget the 2526 uh statute does allow for a January provision main reason for that the correcting uh beginning fund balance. Now that the audit has been completed, we know what our beginning balances were as

054of July 1. We get an update on the total program with the October account numbers in place. state on total program funding model in December to show those funders and then we can also make corrections for any other revenue changes that we have for any other surprises that may come up in the on the expenditure side between June mid June when we adopted the budget today. So what I put together here just as a short update this is completely revenue based our student count actually the FTE student count came in very close we projected 1535 and we gave them a half a student higher that so we were spot on there um charter school open school their number increased by 19 students versus what we posted there our district kids have dropped by And then

055the rest I won't read through each of the budget lines, but you can see there the total program funding based on the new school model dropped by about 229,000 in total 1.2% versus what we had projected for the year. The next section below just other general fund revenues. Our redact number came in about 50% of what we had anticipated. And then the other one isn't necessarily a revenue drop for the district in in total but because of the number of students increased at the charter school versus what we projected the allocation committed each month to not increase. So that will go down that doesn't we had to spend and then the graph at the bottom just shows where the revised and the amount of changes through minimal I would start tomorrow let's start but I'll

056start in earnest tomorrow on the expenditure side that to get us back where we can have a budget balance budget for this year and my goal is to have that completed post if I recall correctly when we saw the budget coming in last summer it was we were surprised that we were up approximately 6,000 was up more than we had anticipated. So this correction which you would always expect you're going to have some sort of correction that still leaves us in good standing from where we had budgeted for the previous year. Correct. We just got more thought. So this is something back. So it's not like there's any uh peril here. Correct. We're still looking at what we had budgeted earlier for last year. Perhaps everybody. >> Yes. Thank you. >> I was just going

057to comment about the fact that we've lost our read some of our half our read grant money. That's oddly a celebration. uh that readad grant money is distributed based on the number of students that are demonstrating uh reading what they call reading deficiency large gap between where they're supposed to be and where they currently are. And so that's an indication actually the elementary school has moved about half the students that we previously had listed as having uh a large gap in the reading. They've removed those students from that list and so the state only designates dollars based on kids of that designation. So sad. Uh, no money, but yay, reading kids. >> Very good. Anything else? All right. Then we'll go to the last big discussion item which we call NASA plan update site evaluation.

058More discussion detail. We've asked for more clarity about fact costs best they can at this stage of these options that's one cost and other ways that sites can be configured on that >> yeah I'm gonna start just by uh reminding us all the slide that if you been here for a bunch of impact meetings or board meetings you've seen many many times, but early on in this process, uh, the board determined things that they wanted to consider while making a site selection. Um, and there's a wide variety of things that are not necessarily ranked in any way, but later this evening, we'll be uh doing some kind of strengths and concerns that should be connected to this listing. So, I just wanted to start by framing it that way. Uh next I want to share

059uh the board and ask me to uh go and uh speak to emergency services specifically to the police chief uh to the sheriff. I I end up speaking to the fire department as well. I did send an email to the board, but I thought just for the sake of it being in public record, I would highlight some portions of that email so that the public was aware. Uh, in all cases, I asked if they had any concerns about either of the sites. Uh, they thought either site brought particular strength to it and if they themselves had a preference. they're not a voting member of the of the board, but uh given the industry that they're in that they should probably be considerate. I spoke to Chief Rock and uh he quickly got to the point

060that uh when the town was considering this uh similar build in previously he had a strong opinion then and his opinion had changed and uh he felt strongly that the K8 school uh should not be downtown. uh citing concerns of his his belief around traffic, about interactions between younger and older students, uh specifically young students near our high school drivers that are new. Um and he spoke specifically about um any kind of serious concern around school, a school shooting or an incident that we'd have difficulty relocating students if we had to evacuate a building. and likely that would mean trying to evacuate both buildings and relocate 1500 kids. And he thought that that uh he had reason for concern uh in that particular area. He brought up specifically that in a recent uh school shooting

061uh the shooter went to a school, could not access the school, and simply walked to the next middle school. And uh while he thought that was extremely rare and and unlikely uh as police chief, he felt that he should mention that that was that was the case. And obviously we want our schools to be secure in all of our schools regardless of their location, but he brought that up. So um I then spoke, this is the order that I spoke to these these guys. I spoke to the fire fire chief uh and Robert uh initially said, you know, he had no real preference for one site or the other, but he did point out that the high school site is a little more challenging for them to get to because it's down on edge, what

062he called downtown on the edge of town. He did ask that we were going to do the, you know, required uh testing of the water pressure and stuff to ensure that there was enough water down there. He said he was had questions about that. I wouldn't say concerns, he was just wondering. Uh he did mention that the water line on park uh he felt was particularly strong. He didn't have any concerns or need, you know, to have us test that extra. He said he was aware that that would be fine. Um and so the obvious answer which is the proximity to the fire department, right? It's right there. Uh same thing applied for emergency services, the hospital. Um, I also spoke to uh Sheriff Laroo who said he uh didn't really have a particular interest

063in one site or the other as being advantageous. He did start by saying that uh he thought it'd be great to be able to shut down one road uh to keep uh anyone from getting to the schools. I did ask him if that was something that uh we're ever able to do is like do we really know that a shooter is coming and we're able to shut down the road. He conceded like that actually has never happened but it'd be easy to secure both sites by you know blocking off the road. I mentioned Chief Rockenock's concern about relocation and he did say that that would be a concern for him as well that it would be difficult to relocate kids if they were all on a single campus. But after that discussion, he did not

064say one way or the other. He had a particularly strong opinion. I think that's the gist of those emails. If if I neglected if I I wasn't reading directly out the email, if I said something or misspoke, please correct question. >> Okay. All right. that uh we asked RTA to get back to us with a detailed uh price uh breakdown by site that Director Taylor is shredding right now. Um and those are in your packet. They're on your on your table. I will reject them here. I'm just going to set set this up. Um the high school site has a gray bar at the top of it. And the Vista site has a green bar at the top of it. I'll just orient you all to it while I'm pulling it up on the screen.

065Um there are two areas that I think are important to stay focused on. There are columns. One's called category total. Um that is the total that RTA said we think this portion of this project would cost this much money. And then next to that, so if you look at the uh gray bar high school site, there's a little green square there and it says general contractor uh average estimate. We asked them to get four uh contractors to look at the work that they were proposing and give their estimate and then uh they took the average of those four groups. And that's a good comparison. And what you'll notice is that there are slight variances at each of the spots. And just to give the public an idea of what we're looking at, like the subtotal

066of site and building demolition, the subtotal of site uh construction, uh the building construction itself, all of those areas. And if you want to get to the punchline, if you look at the very bottom of the project, so the high school site, RTA's estimate of the cost of uh building on that site with the type of school that we're talked about, a K8 prek8 school was 129,775,000. >> Yep. I'm going I just wanted to get through some of this so just everyone knows. And then meanwhile the contractors said, "Ah, we think it's a little bit more than that. We think it's 130.1 million." So there's they were very close, but you can see where contractors and the and the architect differed slightly. When you look at the Vista site, if you go to the very

067bottom there, you can see again there's just about a $1 million gap between what RTA was estimating, the 121 million, uh, and what the, uh, general contractors estimated, 122 million. Give me a second. Pull those up. knows what everyone can read that but feel free to approach the screen but we're going to publish these they'll be available so everyone can be published on the website >> y >> we'll make it available so people can see it um and if you're like, "That's not fast enough for me." And you want to email me personally and say, "Could you share that with me?" I will gladly share that with you. No problem with that. So, this is uh we asked them to give us a few things. One, apples to apples because there was some confusion we

068talked about here at the site about is this included, is that included, how much does that cost? And so, they went uh through that process of outlining each of the things that would be uh contained on the site. And then there are some things that are unique to the site. So I'll just draw some attention to those. Um this is the high school site uh site demolition and just some offsite demolition. They're estimating at about 1.5 between 1.3 and $ 1.5 million. And then when you look down there's some items that we'd have to address. So relocating the high school baseball field. Um the estimate is around uh $2.2 2 million and then there is also a retain wall that'll be dumped that and while the architect said that's about 85 a foot uh I

069believe that or 88 a foot I believe that the uh contractor was saying you got to look at uh a little bit more money for that I think the total cost is $100,000 there relocation which we've talked about a lot about the softball fields are there they've estimated it's about a million dollars to relocate those fields if We own the property. We don't have to buy property for that. We could just put them on existing property um as we've discussed behind the school to preserve practice space for the high school students. um because of the high volume use, their suggestion is that the practice field turf um to allow for high volume use with a small additional practice field that would actually be grass that would keep the uh football field grass. Uh we have

070discussed in here, you know, the possibility of the football field becoming turf and uh and that other field being grass. I think it's six one way, half dozen the other. you're gonna make it one of the fields to be become turf. And that uh outside of the football stadium, they're saying it's about $750,000. And that's a practice field that's regulation size for a football or a soccer field. And you'll recall that that space fits uh behind a 78 school between that and really where the new baseball would go. Um many of the other things are pretty much the same. playground and playfield equipment, parking lot. Um, you can see utilities and sewer extensions are there. The actual building construction, there was some differences here. This is where RTA was saying, well, we think the building

071itself will cost about $81.7 million and the contractors are like, we think it's closer to 79. And when you're talking these large numbers, these are, you know, not not a huge difference to us. some of the fees that um are baked into this isn't all construction. There are also fees for general contractors. Um and there's also builder's risk insurance, liability insurance. Um and so all of those numbers are there so you can see what's all baked into that estimated price. We in here we've been throwing around 123 or 125 million as that total price, but it has all these little things in it. Um, and then there's owner costs. There's costs for us as well. We have to have a contingency fund for the project. Uh, we have to afford an owner's rep, which we

072want. We want an owner's rep. Plus, the best grant will ask us to have an owner's rep. And those dollars are there as well. And all of those dollars are a percentage of the total project cost. So as the total project cost goes up, those fees go up as well. Questions on that. Yeah, that's just digestion. Now clarify this is just projected based on three or four contractors or contractors. They said RCA to the board. >> Yeah, we'll accept your application. >> Yeah, it's not a uh it's a costly endeavor. Building is expensive. So, >> I suppose I have a quick question. What's the you know it just were to be built downtown where would be the replacement replace at the end of these two and ask questions we will that would you like to

073go through the other site for comparison and again that the total projected cost between RTA and the you know and the builder's cost around where where they're coming for the high school site provided that we choose uh to relocate some of those fields. If we didn't relocate a couple of those fields, uh, we could take a million dollars off that presumably. This this keeps the site whole in the sense that whatever you're losing would cost to replace it somewhere else. And those are some softball. We were awful hard on pushing around where that building could be, minimize what you maximize. And we we've heard comment about, you know, it would be great to build it into the hillside. There's advantages to that. And those costs are much higher than the $130 million costs. And so

074that was one of the reasons that we stopped looking at that site and the wetland mitigation that was going in and the massive drainage problem that appears over on that hill. So again, that's just for public knowledge. That's one of the reasons that the board started to say, "Hey, we still need to look at the best site possible on the high school site. Is there a place that's more reasonable? And this is the most uh reasonable in in comparison to the to the system. >> Yeah. We even moving pushing it further around the corner uh behind essentially the Matt building and the grades there started to get over 20% and our architects builders were like nope no thanks. Um, and we did at least inquire like, "Oh, let's put it where the map building is."

075And they were like, "Well, that's a minimum of $10 million. That doesn't cost that including destroying the map building. That's just rebuilding it somewhere else." And that seems fiscally irresponsible. All right, we'll take a look at the Vista site. It's broken out the same way. You should be able to follow your way down. You'll notice uh site because it's a green field site, there's about $800,000 worth of um demolition there to be done to repair the site. On the actual site construction, uh we have some small wetland mitigation there. They've listed. Um we they would they're offering to build we would want to build a junior high sixlane track with an athletic field in there and uh bleachers. That would be natural turf. Um one of the other expenses we had to list which is

076important is the offra uh signal and timing and the turn lane on the highway. Um, and that comes in right around uh $2.9 million for all that as the estimate right now. We've started a conversation uh just recently to the county about is there any way to access any grant money through Scott if that was a way to go to get that uh price down any or do we have to carry all that cost? Then you can see playground, playfield, utilities, etc. there bringing that total. uh where RTA was saying around $10 million, the builders are saying actually all that's closer to $13 million, but that's one of the places where there's a little bit of discrepancy, but the builders are higher than RTA. Um and then you see right below that for the building

077construction on that site, same building, um they're saying that the cost of building the building there is $76.8 million. Um, and so that's and they're actually slightly less again than RTA at 78. >> So Rick, if we're looking directly with the high school site for that number >> the difference is approximately like $3 million. >> I believe that it is >> 76 versus 79. That's correct. >> Yeah. the foundations that we know and just again for public interest, the soil that's in the really the river valley there along the high school is very loose and not compacted. Um we've drilled it, we've had it tested and studied and essentially requires a deep foundation which is just more expensive. Um, and so that's different than the uh soils that are up at Vista, which uh tend

078closer to bedrock and more compacted because it's not in essentially a rivery valley where that river has been traveling back and forth over centuries depositing soil. >> If I might correct myself, I was looking at really the wrong numbers. We're talking direct cost of construction. The difference with Vista is approximately six. If you look at the total value under the direct cost of construction which I'm highlighting right here uh of course I can't >> basically 90 million versus 95. So correct myself again but $5.1 million cheaper at Vista for direct cost. >> Yeah remember some of that money into is built into like that include direct cost included us replacing a softball office. So that's our our discretion of it. um same it's the same fee structure it's the same percentage for all those folks

079but do future job um and that's based on the total cost so as the cost of the project goes up every all those uh costs uh go up as well probably the contingency fund has to be all all of those things and overall that project is coming in between 121.7 and 122.7 as the Just a sec. >> I'll answer questions on that. >> I just have one comment. Any thoughts or questions? In in either case, >> we'd be going our community and we're of course hoping to cut this by about half uh through a less grant. and and we very level that in fact we will be submitting an application for the best grant state best process in February March and we will know if we get the grant by May and talking about potentially

080up to 45% of the cost is helping communities live all around our area. So not it's not a pie sky imagination but certainly not a guarantee but something we communities. >> So if I might make a comment of the the contractors and the average of four contractors I think that's right. So just comparing their total costs which RTAs of these people are pretty good if they do if I understand this decide is approximately $7.4 million less expensive or approximately 6% quick math >> I believe that's to be accurate. Yeah. One one thing I was when I was speaking to RTA they uh they said one of the reasons that they like to do so for contractors instead of just asking one is contractors start thinking like oh maybe you'll think about me and so they

081try to offer the very most competitive bid. So this it gets really it gets down to what it's really going to cost them. Don't get really inflated from those contractors. So that's something in our advantage >> the fact that the RTA estimates and the contract very close to those a lot of confidence >> you want to go ahead and share some of the replacement deals might happen that if you produce the fuel space and it's in the budget here's a way yeah we asked RTA, we said, "Hey, would you show us what it would look like and cost like if we were to replace the fields that were decent?" Um, they put together on the Vista property a small sports complex. I try to blow this up for you. uh a small sports sports complex

082that has the three softball fields that we be building over and uh as include a soccer or sports field because that's what we'll be using if we don't build on Vista. still we don't have a middle school field and so I said well show us what that would look like too because that is one of the costs that we incur is the loss the loss of that uh restrooms concessions little maintenance building uh small parking a little bit of walking succeeding there uh RTA said you know our estimate is about $17 million um getting access there taking care of everything drainage all that stuff they put it out to contractors and the contractors were coming in at 22 of $23 million and based what on what we just saw. Uh I that was kind of

083concerning to see RTA and the contractors so close and then to see them much further apart. So I checked in with RTA again and they they seem to think at this point that um their estimate was a closer to reality and that maybe contractors were less interested in this. So maybe bidding it higher. But um in either case, it's roughly, you know, 17 20 million million dollars to build a a small sports complex that would be off the property that would preserve all the fields that we're building on top of and give us the one additional field that we've been missing out on because we're not able to build additional fields down at the at the high school site. So Rick with this thinking would this be the high school soccer field and this is

084where games would be played or is this strictly practice so the high school teams would have to translocate up >> or is it the middle school football field and that's where middle school practices like who's going to commute to practice? I think all those things are things that we would decide that really hasn't taken part of that thought process right now. We haven't gone to that detail. I don't want to get people, you know, panicked like, "Oh my god, I got to load all these seven bus to get them up to practice." So conceptual. >> Yeah, this is just conceptual. If we wanted to replace it, what's the cost? What's the value of replacing them? This is a place where we own the property as well. So that's advantageous and we'd be welcome neighbors there.

085I mean, the LPOA has indicated that we happy school or sports complex there. So if this was 17 bill, let's take the optimistic number. Is that included then high school build cost estimate? This is separate. >> Totally separate. >> Separate. >> Yeah. In addition to >> there's a million dollars in there to replace the two softball fields if we can put them on property own. But once you start talking sports complex, which is the term that got brought up and we're adding other fields and amenities, you know, one of the we're going to use it as a space and we have kids going there regular. We have to have restrooms there. It's not the same as just plop two fields down where we want. We would have in the budget you have a billion allocated.

086>> Yep. >> That's correct. So it beion. There's 2.2 for the high school baseball and there's a million dollars being relocated. >> Good question. The and with this diagram here, the high school baseball will still stay at the high school where it was proposed, which is right now would be the space directly between the track and the high school. That practice field is where is the only place that would fit a relocation. And so they would relocate the baseball diamond to that space. That's correct. Um, and that, you know, we we do we need to invest in our baseball field anyways, but I mean, we're not in our budget, Jason. We're not talking 2.2, but that's what it would cost to move it. Build it, put the fences in, put the lights in, get it

087graded, right, put the retaining wall would be additional because the outfield would push into that hillside. Um, it's kind of a scrubby dirt hillside that comes down there. We the field that there isn't enough space. So they'd have to excavate there to put a retain wall in. What else? Just a million dollar here. I don't really have anything like two of them like >> it could go away. I I think you could say, "All right, well, the difference isn't 7.1." >> I think that would be unfair, especially once you start considering this because that's only that's only a million dollar. >> That's right. comparing sub. >> Yeah. Either you have to do something more serious like you could rest. That's correct. So I think just when we're talking site considerations, I just want to bring

088up uh earlier in this process, we had just talks like, hey, what else might be on the table for us? Like what things do we maybe need? Um, and some of those things, many of those things obviously are at the high school for having a K8 school, put a K8 school regardless of the site. You have to have a new school. Um, sorry, Bill. The um, and so some of those things don't take up space, like the HVAC system needs to be upgraded in the high school. Um, that doesn't take up space, but we need to use some of that space for to expand the San Juan Mountain School, which was under built from the start. and um we need to expand that. We should be looking at an alternative gym at the high school

089without um any gyms downtown. That would be a good use. Granted, you could say like, oh, use the new gyms that are going to be put in at K building, but even even still, um we're short on gym space when it comes to uh our our indoor sports season. Uh a fieldhouse would be beneficial for us. that also needs a place. Um really spring soccer, women's soccer, baseball on a typical year. This is atypical. Watch it'll snow all of April, but um you know, we need to be able to get out on the field and having a field house for a place like we are at our elevation, our climate would be really beneficial with your kids indoors and moving a ball around, throwing the ball around and having space that would also take a

090footprint out of that space. the tenative I just asked RTA like hey tenatively look at this plot where do you see an alternative gym going on and they were like brace yourself we're losing some parking space um and so okay you know maybe you can lose some parking space but that fieldhouse that that's on everything everything that we're talking about that's where that thing sits so I I just think we have to consider um going into the future like what are other things that we're going to need in in either Dispenseless to say right now cheaper site spend the same money. $5 million you could spend. >> That's correct. That would be one way of thinking about it. If you said, uh, oh, we'll build on that site. It's less by $6 million. Maybe we

091could tolerate asking taxpayers for that money to build an auxiliary gym or a fieldhouse. We haven't gotten a cost estimate on auxiliary gym. I think we'll have one before our next meeting. I think the fieldhouse estimate based on one they just recently built which is like a shell with turf um was about $3 and a half million dollars and so that would be something that would be within our our reach if we're talking about those those so yeah that is that's a good point I think have to think about other things that we need just along Daily if the high school fields are not taken up we can put money into improving the baseball field which I agree means and the football you're not losing fields you're not spending $7 million on additional replacement for

092those >> yeah and some of these items that are on here are those things uh refurbish all the fields redo the irrigation um for those fields redo the lighting get in some LED lights around the football field cut our electricity costs significantly. Um there are some options there. And I forgot to mention like next spring I think uh or summer uh Bill Pagosa will be breaking ground on their CTE building that or it's really a workforce center regional workforce center that'll also be on that property. It's located between the San Mountain School and the corner of the of the gym. that entrance right there on 80 that empty lot. Um and there's two phases to that building. So that's going to go down once and then hopefully grow again. That's another place we might consider.

093Um should we be asking taxpayers to expand that to the proposed full size um instead of putting down half half the building more? That's something else that just goes goes that way. But yes, Tim, I'm sorry that was a long answer and I didn't walk there, but the proposal would be to refurbish fields. Practice field is a disaster right now. It's not very safe. Uh we have to improve the irrigation over there. We've had problems. Jason made a huge huge shift in actually working with Darren and helping make sure that we get water down there on a regular basis. That's really exciting. But we got work to do to refurbish those fields. So that would be something we wanted. What I thought we do here is go around each board and so subjectively assess for

094each site and say what do you see as strengths of the proposed building at site A and site B? What do you see as concerns with site A? We just capture our thinking here out loud around the morning strength of the site for me that's run out and then we'll go around and say what's concern do the same thing at the site and for me it's a way to capture and getting us a chance to reflect both the criteria that we set initially matters a lot the most of those and just all these possible over the last several months and it's it's all part of our thinking out loud without voting or stating so started that started let's talk about high school site and what's a strength of that site Obviously a lot of them

095brought up today but if we want to repeat what we just say yes like that and I'm just gonna do blend curve so because we might we might all agree We want to hear from the board. >> Do you want us to go one at a time or should we tell our list? >> One at a time. >> Okay. Um, I kind of worded it as what I feel each site prioritizes. Um, and so for me, um, again agreeing community cohesion and for the high school site, um, after school participation I had a list of things that I'm most afraid of like snips typing in public. >> I'm high school so I was with the two that are already up there, the desire. I think that is my opinion that is been expressed most a

096little bit. But the way I chose to look at this is that we have these criteria working with the very beginning and one of those is supports a broad range of student activities needs at the moment at least. Clearly the high school has advantage including after school activities and just proximity allies broad range of activities and a little bit but I I would say my strength was available resources rigor arts library. >> One of my workshops. I think there's some there's some advantage to interaction superh Everybody senior >> let's say just a family coordinated schedule like how school organized daily life on the same subject. Consolidation of everything. Uh it's been mentioned that that the opportunities for middle older middle school students to uh participate in curricular not not actually heard curricular activities academic activities

097at the high school of course would be it would be easy at the high school site process. I'll just add one editorializ, you know, been around for a long long time. Lots's been done in the town over the years to to not have the town turn into just one string from 160 to deal. And so kind of deepening the town hall there. I think we really got to save a lot. strengthening strengthen anybody anything to have not I justific in that area. Walkability. >> Anything else? Anyone? >> You could say a straight that it would demand excellent planning on the website >> and that could be seen as a strength that it would absolutely have so many entities and conversations. I would want to see that as a strength balancing the ledger, right? What concerns

098are there? >> Hey guys. Um, there's a safety children are of all the safety concerns. I would say that a potential risk with that area would be Um, I guess I will focus this one on just like the traffic congestion. >> Space can only cram so much down there. That's a huge concern. >> Dovetailing is slightly redundant. But again, one of our points is flexibility um of facilities to accommodate future needs and it is essentially that. But we're also talking about the future and I think that is very limited unless they want to give us the uh retire the sewage treatment plan if we would want it. I sorry I have so much sharing schedule high quality. One one of the groups is pretty strong when we talk to them close with some things space

099that's Yeah, if I ever don't write anything. Um yeah, I guess I would just say that we carry on with the other government's basis that if it is not well done um within leadership and committee that it just be done additional cost >> along with I'll confirm what director Director David said about the district administration just that it was 100% but I talked to 100% of district administration did not favor the high school site. So we're talking about that. So that's it. But also it's distinct uh most of what I heard from district staff non-administration was the same did not prefer the high school site. uh one of which I think maybe is relevant is potential K through eight uh conflicts with students and high school students. There was some serious concerns about that statement

100mentioned by potential conflict. I don't >> we kind of covered the field middle school athletics definitely a challenge to high school but I think that's kind of covered but let's just read that Right. Yeah, that's that's security and one of our points is safety and security. We're often those are possibly distinct things. Safety being a huge amount of students, 15,600 whatever students all the facult uh K through eight kids are not always going to look across the street. You know, that's why I've been so concerned about having this site here for so many years. We've been very fortunate not to have been very fortunate crossing 16 wouldn't be the same thing but there's still going to be a high volume traffic at various times of the day that's just a that's come up let's go

101to the other site starting thank Let me just say fiscally responsible. I think that's Additional field space dedicated fields to the students. I think the the the positive which is a negative for the high school essentially you're eliminating potential conflicts between K through eight kids and high school students and again for the public to know this was brought up by staff was something I just thought of to Um, I was just growing that expandability easier. There's a lot of high school options. >> Yeah. That's a possibility. the potential to use cost savings due to some of the other things on the list. Um, well, I have great respect for what has been said by our district administrators and staff. Great respect. And I think that needs to be put here that those were an overwhelming

102preference just to the overwhelming preference for the administrators and staff that I kept. There was a substantial number of people that came forward in our special meeting and work session and private That's construction less disruption to grades during construction. Let's go to the flip side. Oh, I want to I think again I think it could should be said that uh this is site I think would be important to middle middle school athletics. I think that is shared by the athletic directors at both the high school coaches I've spoken to and certainly the the middle school athletic director uh their own track in which they can work out their own fields without competing with high school students all the time and high school generally takes precedence that's the way things get established a great asset for

103middle school athletics Anyone just having anywhere concerns I'll uh there's a lot of community sentiment obviously selling it harder things just go there not quite as I think that way harder cells all these reasons all these trade-offs office. I don't think sometimes families just get used to things. I think they just engage um because it's just more difficult. So, Whatever. The culture of downtown parks activities. The uh I think it complicates drop offs for parents who have children up south and downtown. Just goes on the flip side of what was mentioned for the high school is that the opportunities for middle school and the high sorry middle school students the seventh well let's say eighth graders for high school academic interactions substantially increased as as it stands right now. Of course, district transportation take care

104of something isolated and disconnected from resources. I guess along the same lines or second. What else? It did not hold higher. >> Keep taking my idea. I think one thing that has concern me with a high school site and this is not right but is the traffic flow in general. I think it would like to be highly engineered but uh to be fair this size is that traffic flow is not trivial stuff I don't think it's as serious but still a challenge based on what the engineers told us better I think still a challenge my mind that close to highway isn't strict but I'm not the list but I just didn't so or you just want to >> Well, we we will have we done sort of constraining you to at this moment. It's been

105a good significant. So let's open up to any other thoughts or comments using this time to exercise our thoughts from everyone else from the public time next time we meet in the meeting. What else? >> No, I just I mean I think traction is solvable for high school. I think you know standard times um is something that we put a lot of weight into but I don't think traffic's solvable to an extent. Um, I think the growth projections are important to look at for our school as well as the community. Um, like our school enrollment, our population, what the town sees, um, you know, does that idea of expandability outweigh the town and culture of it being closer to the high school site? Um, I mean, I I just keep coming back to like I

106want to just have minimal regret, right? Like this a bad design any place like years of resentment of me living here until I'm dead. And so >> I'm not making today. >> And so I just I want us to do this well. is um and I think it's so responsible of us to talk about that there are real strengths and real costs at both sites and um perhaps you know there's not anything that's bad. It's just opportunities and what and what do we want to maximize in our opportunities at these sites and again what does each site for me the best word to hold on to was what does each site prioritize um for our community and um and that's just kind of where I am. I don't feel you're wanting us to say where

107our preference is at this time. >> This was still just builds your brain that every thought should be in a funnel before you make make a choice. >> Yeah. I just it's um I'm interested in continuing to hear other thoughts because I think it you know the the blessing and the burden are often within the exact same thing right to grow without crisis at one point is is basically saying what are we losing in our dayto-day what really is our growth need with a declining enrollment might not be forever but it is actually the data that we would show right out is that our enrollment is not a rack of throat. Um, and what again what are we hearing from the polls? What are we hearing from the voters? And I think that that is

108valid. >> You know, one one point of fact rel this building is suited for about 8,000 1,200 kids. They have thousand building capacity, 1200 kids. We have about thousand kids today. So there's there's growth built in that question. there's some room to grow about 20%. Now, and the current I don't think we should be shorted. We should think sooner or later is going to grow in the next five years. It doesn't look like we would eat up that 200 cap. That's just the listening the size of the building is substantial. picture building double that size,000. current high school is in that 70ish just the architecture just under the high school it sat it next in here we got a question I'll just go ahead and So since you since you're planning I I thought you

109were some reason >> um but basically um my request would be that on the um sheet that talks about finances if we're going to do apples to apples um I would like it to be a grass field in both locations and not a turf field at the high school site and a natural field at the Vista site because um we're we're doing apples to apples. I think that the fair the fair thing about that would just be that if we're all at high school use of that so >> like you say it would be foolish not to put synthetic because it's going to have double triple the use >> profession do that probably be shortsighted if we're all one place invest so you don't wear Yeah, I have a question. So the best plan is

110about how much time? >> About 45% of the total project and that project would consist of the school not of the little projects that we do in addition or potentially do on top of that. So if there was a auxiliary gym or the work that we're going to do with uh PPOS, the best grant does not cover parts of that. Those are whole dollars. But for uh new school construction, this these grants are set up to help offset that. So we have to bring uh last year's number, I'll check again, is 55% matching. So if the cost of the project is 120 million and the best grant is about 30 million >> about 55 million >> 55 million. So you're going to go but what's the likelihood that you might not get? >> It's um

111that the amount of money that's been set aside for best grants has decreased. Um and we would we will make the list uh right away. There is a list. Everyone makes the list. It depends where you land on the list. High need, well written, you're near the top. Um, if you have sports, a good partnership, that does well. Poorly written, low need, you go near the bottom of the list. But even schools that land on the bottom list, we won't land on the bottom of the list. They progress up the list over over years as needs needs go. And so there is possibility um that we would land near the top of the list and be funded. They set they have x number of millions of dollars. They rank the projects and they start spending

112that money through those projects and when they run out of money that's the last project that they do. It's equally possible or not placed that high. And so in May they'll say, "Oh, you're ranked 12th only funding to 10." But that next year you would then pop up to the top. The one thing that's guaranteed with the funding is you get all of the money. So, uh there was a time there's some discussion like what if they only partially funded, but the reality is you always get 45% of the project and it also hopefully it's not too much in weeds, but it's possible to go for a bond based on the premise. Should we get the best grant in the future? Would you support this? And people do that in the state quite quite often.

113Um >> well would the board has the board made a decision as to whether whether you get the best grant or not we would proceed with this project. >> We haven't made decision kind of have to do it in serial order. So if you're asking me about I think we're going to be on the ballot >> $85 million or >> we don't know. That's that's the thing. So we don't have to decide till August. >> Right. >> But it's very likely. But isn't there concern about the financial demographics of this community and the ability to be able to support the I mean I think we're spending a lot of time talking about location and the difference is $3 million. At the end of the day our kids deserve good space to be educated and this

114community >> we're talking about $6 million projects and people are saying that's huge. That's why we're going best in order. The polling last year leaned toward say yes more taxes above 50%. It wasn't within the comfort zone that you should have put it on the ballot, but with minimal information last summer, as much as we were last summer, there was a leaning toward we support. So, didn't feel like we were off, but it's also why we have to be try to get the best grant and try to reduce the impact. It's highly likely we'll test uh ballot language again and additional projects and once um we've gotten more information about the best. Hey, this is where we're ranked, we're going to make the cut and then use that information to another round, we keep pulling

115and then I think like we're going to be in the same place every community that's ever tried to do this is. If it doesn't uh happen the the first time, then go back and figure out how to make it happen. Um, we're past the point as a community of saying like, "Oh, the heck wait for the next group of board members and whatever next time you get in 10 years, those guys can figure it out." This community has done that twice already. We cannot do that anymore. So then we'll have to come back to everyone and say, "We thought we heard this, that didn't work. What about this?" And so we'll keep trying. >> Yes, go ahead. >> A couple comments. a little a little out of order, but okay. >> Just a couple things

116from where I was sitting. I didn't see the angle as far as the cost of was it for the traffic signal that needs to be placed. What was that cost and that was included in there? >> Yeah, it is. >> Okay. I didn't see that. And it's the light acceleration and deceleration lanes and improving the other intersections around there because there's turns on park turns on this stuff. We have the same thing downtown turns on all that. >> Speaking from uh the parks and recreation director, you guys should not be looking at saying, well, we now put it downtown we have to spend $17 million on sports complex. that just without even thinking of collaboration that could take place, right? So, don't scare yourself saying, "Oh my gosh, you got to spend now $17 million."

117No, you don't. There are so many grand opportunities. I'm all for sports complex and collaborating with the town, the parts of the rec department. I do. You guys know what usage do you have for your three softball fields right now? How often do they get used? >> By your students. >> Pardon me. >> By the district, by the community, >> by the district. By your students. I believe it's just that big women's softball team play and that's it. So, one usage. >> That's my understanding. >> Okay. And that just started. Not that that won't grow. Not for >> Well, exactly. kind of my point as well >> for like you know advisory activities you have like all the kids outside your >> Sure. Sure. Okay. So um from an athletic standpoint as far as getting

118used for a sports complex that's the first thing I thought of if it goes downtown because it's going to be my as I told you before part of my job. I just lost three baseball fields that I used for parks and recreation. So now I'm going to deliver that. I have to be part of that conversation, right? In the town and the county, there's revenue to be made off sports complex. >> There is, you know, having baseball, soccer, it it's it's huge, you know, between our club programs that go on, between our recreation programs that go on in this community. So, so don't again don't scare yourself saying, "Oh, we got to replace this and it's going to cost $17 million." No, it's not. And I think there's that's a separate conversation to really get

119the right people around that table. And you might be surprised between any kind of lamp and any kind of staff what could be completed without saying it's going to cost 17. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, you kind of took some of that out of my mouth. I was having a really hard time wrapping my mind around how moving a softball field that was in great condition would cost. I'm currently building a house and I have kind of an idea of how expenses work and I get you're talking about new drainage and foundation lights. But then I'm also thinking those three fields sit there empty 10 months out of the year. Why is this such a concern for the district that doesn't really use them and it is part of

120act and here >> you know really so it just I feel like these numbers need to be taken out of that high school site because it's irrelevant right I don't want to lose field space all about green space um but then to tie off you know uh this this apple turf to grass and you're saying well you better put turf here because use so many people using than that. I don't think that should also be factored into the K through eight. If that's a K through 12 issue, that would be part of your extra money that you're using throughout the district, not necessarily specifically for this project. >> Yeah, I just had a comment. Um the all these things have been putting up here the pros and cons of the sites about 15 or 20

121years ago in Gunnison where I lived for quite a while they had the very same issue. They built a K8 school within a couple blocks of the high school and a lot of the questions they had about having the two schools so close together. I mean they really went back and forth on that. And I was going to suggest it might be worthwhile since they've been there, done that. I could put you in touch with a couple of people out there that might really be able to give you an idea of how that's all worked out. >> What I understand, I haven't been there anymore, but what I understand is they're very very happy that they built the building where they did that. >> Okay. I think pause on this capture. Appreciate everyone came out

122and share their thoughts tonight. As a community, we want to be together. We want to do the right thing. I think that's why investing time getting every brain involved wants to be and hopefully feel like you're being City action on a board meeting resolution about the place on the time and schedule of our future. Yes. Yes. >> Ask to read the 2026 board meeting resolution whereas section 24-6-42 2C L revised statutes requires that public place or places for posting notices in the meetings of its district's board of education shown annually the board's first regular meeting each calendar year. Now therefore be resolved that regular monthly meetings of the board of education or the school district joint shall be held in the first Wednesday of each month except for July 2026 at the time of 6

123pm at a district facility and will be designated within the agenda posting and the public place for posting session shall be through uh the link board docs that's listed here common thing put out all time which is linked through the art Google website. Additionally, a hard copy of the agenda will be available upon request during regular business hours at district administration office located at 309 Lewis Street. No Springs, Colorado 81147, no less than 24 hours before the commencement of each regular and special meeting if there is an exit exigent or emergency circumstance such as power outage or an interruption internet service. So introduced, read, approved, and adopted the 7th day of January, 2026. Motion to adopt that resolution. Second action motion second. Any discussion about that? >> Mr. Iverson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Lynch. >>

124Hi, >> Mr. Mackey. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Shik. And Mr. All right. Any last details? So then to share just briefly say that is testing the Monazuma Cortez contesting of the recent ruling that they could not leave the Boseies. So we should know where we where that all lands by the end of the month where I've been reassured by Monosum Cortex that will pursue a separation. So but uh yeah we're working on that. It might entail myself heading up with those to Denver to speak to the commissioner but I'll let you know if that case >> uh it would be later this month. the choosing of the commissioners to work around her her schedule, but I believe she has to make a ruling. She's a sole person in this as the arbiter of any uh

125objection to the her department making a ruling. So find out. All right. Anything else? Anything? All right. Thank you again. We will be back on January 21 at 6 p.m. when we do the revised budget and revisit this whole site question. Anything you feel like you need between now and then reach out to me.