The Dolores school board on June 8 heard a presentation about a potential track and field, hired new staff, discussed a policy update to school lunches and approved the preliminary budget.
The RE-4A Board of Education heard from Renner Sports Surfaces, a company in Denver that designs and builds field and track for schools. Kevin Ty did the presentation because his partner couldn’t make it in time.
Ty told the board that Renner Sports had been founded in France in the mid-1800s and is committed to building world-class level track and field. He said they have had over 20,000 track installations throughout the world, including multiple tracks and other installations in Colorado.
They discussed natural versus artificial turf, with Ty recommending artificial, as it would save the district 1.5 to 2 million gallons of water each year.
He said school staff would be trained on maintain the track surface, and a machine would come with the track to help with maintenance as well.
The track would last about 20 years with proper care.
The board has been discussing potentially adding a track and field at the school at some point in the next few years. While they have no concrete plans for the addition, they have discussed it at most school board meeting recently.
Superintendent Reece Blincoe has noted that he would love to see athletes utilize a track and field.
If the board does decide to go through with the track and field with Renner Sports, they could receive financing up to 100% of the project.
In board reports, President Meagan Crowley and Clay Tallmadge discussed their reactions to the possibility that Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 might leave San Juan BOCES.
While the BOCES could stand to lose quite a bit of money if they lose Cortez after losing Durango, Tallmadge said that “Cortez is a big piece, but not the only piece.”
“We were OK when Durango left, and honestly became stronger for it,” he said.
Crowley said the Pagosa School District was very concerned about what would become of BOCES if Cortez leaves, but she said it was possible the state wouldn’t allow Cortez to pull out because of how it would affect the other districts in BOCES.
Tallmadge said he would follow up with BOCES soon to see if there was an update.
Superintendent Blincoe’s report was short, but highlighted the survey that was being sent to taxpayers in the community, to help see how the district and schools can continue to improve.
The cutoff date to finish the surveys is June 21, and Blincoe said he was hopeful they would receive a good response from those in the community.
During discussions about capital projects, Maintenance Director Alfonso Goad said a tiny amount of lead had been detected in the elementary school, but it was such a small amount that they took another test and sent it to be retested, just to be sure the test wasn’t a fluke.
The first discussion item was adding a permanent substitute to the preschool. Previously, a grant gave the preschool two extra workers acting as substitutes when needed.
According to the request for a permanent substitute, there were only 40 days out of the school year last year when they didn’t have a substitute working in the preschool.
Member Casey McClellan asked how their new permanent substitutes were doing in other parts of the school, and Blincoe said they were getting great reports and that the substitutes were being used almost every day.
They also discussed an update from CASB called Healthy School Meals for All, which came about because of legislation change that has affected certain school policies surrounding school meals.
The program is willing to provide $130 million collectively to schools statewide. If schools opt-in, children eat for free each day with food from local producers.
The board said they would continue to discuss whether they would opt in after receiving a warning that there were strings attached behind the scenes, and it was not clear whether or not a school could opt out once they had opted in.
Blincoe also asked about giving a 5% raise to six middle managers and directors in the school, as their salary had not been discussed in past meetings. The board decided to continue discussing it.
They also decided to leave the school calendar and 2024 graduation date as is after hearing concerns about potential conflicts with state competitions. They said next year’s graduation will be almost a week later than this year’s, giving them a buffer for state competitions.
In action items, the board passed a preliminary budget for the 2023-2024 school year, noting that because their budget is down from the last school year and their school is self-sufficient, they will be able to lower the mill levy.
The board also hired new staff.
There will be no board meeting in July. The next meeting will take place in August, kicking off the new school year with the superintendent evaluation.
