After moving their meeting to Oct. 17 because of a lack of quorum on Oct. 18, the Dolores County RE-2J school board heard updates about the new elementary school, received a small update on Rico’s detachment and accepted the resignation of a long-term employee who was retiring.
At the beginning of their meeting, the board learned that construction of the new elementary school was on schedule to complete concrete work by the end of October and steel to arrive around the start of November.
In November, there will be a “last beam-signing ceremony,” which will allow students to sign the final beam when it is put in place. Interior colors, furniture, fixtures and equipment have been approved, and an initial order will be placed by December.
Playground equipment will be ordered by the end of the year, if the construction project remains on schedule.
The old high school has been demolished, and the contractor is working on back filling and grading the area around Memorial Hall, which is being prepared for stucco work next week.
Not many more details were reported regarding Rico’s potential detachment after the Nov. election, but the board was told the issue committee is still working to get the word out to voters.
If passed, Rico will move to the Telluride school district instead of being part of the Dolores County school district.
In discussion items, the board said the district’s audit was completed and the auditor was very pleased with the district’s financial record keeping. All funds are in a good place, and the only addition for this year was to include the bond funds and the bond redemption fund.
The board lauded the work Roxie Guynes has done on revising the financial reports and reviewed the audited financial statements for the district for the fiscal year 2022-2023.
Four district policies were approved for the second reading, and the resignation of Robert Fraizer was “reluctantly accepted” by the board as Frazier has been part of the district for 15 years.
“Mr. Frazier has been a big piece of our district and he will be missed. He retired and will be enjoying life,” the board said.
