At the Dolores School District Re-4A meeting Thursday, the board discussed major renovations for Dolores schools, building affordable teacher housing and how to keep the tax rate low for citizens among other discussion points.
Lego robotics
At the beginning of the meeting, the board heard from the Dolores BEARs Lego robotics team, which will compete at the state contest Dec. 10. The team told the board about their successful first season as a team and what they hoped to accomplish at state.
Coach Demetra Elder also said the students would be able to tour a robotics lab while in Denver. At the end of their presentation, the team members demonstrated their team cheers and gave the Board a rundown of their speeches and robot demonstrations for the state championship.
The board later approved donating $886 to the Lego robotics club.
After the BEARs presentation and citizen comments, the board was updated about plans to build a new high school and renovate the old high school to house middle schoolers.
The building master plan update includes a new high school building along with improved parking to separate buses, cars and pedestrians to improve safety.
The football field will get updates including a new band room, grandstands, restrooms and concession area. The new restrooms will replace portable potties.
They also spoke of new, covered walkways around campus that would prevent students from harsh weather as they move from building to building or class to class.
They emphasized that safety was top priority in the master plan and there will be notable security improvements, including securing the edge of campus.
The existing high school building will become the middle school, and while the high school building is an older building, an audit this year revealed that structure can safely be rejuvenated and used as the new middle school.
Superintendent Reece Blincoe informed the board they are working on applying for a BEST grant to help fund the building projects. The grant application will be completed about Feb. 6, and they should know the status of the grant by May.
An advisory board of parents, teachers and community members helped choose the plan of action regarding the renovations.
There will be four phases to the building process. Phase 1 includes building the high school, improving safety and security, moving the middle school into the old high school and demolishing the old middle school. The community can vote to approve the local portion of the renovations in November 2023.
On Jan. 10, the board will host a community engagement event for the master plan and Phase 1. This will allow parents, students, teachers and members of the community to tour the school and learn about the renovations and changes. The event will take place at 6 p.m.
To keep local citizens from facing a higher tax rate in the coming year after learning assessed property values were down $3 million, the board and Blincoe approved using some of the school’s bond savings.
They are working with Montezuma County to learn why assessments had fallen.
Blincoe said they will use about $45,000 of the bond savings “to save taxpayers during this hard time.”
“It affects our bond debt, which would have required a hefty mill (tax) increase if it wasn’t for our board helping out by using some reserve.”
He also said they would try to do the same thing next year.
“Every bit helps,” he said. “We’re proud of our board for making this decision.”
The board again discussed the topic of affordable teacher housing within walking distance from campus for teachers who need a more affordable place to live.
While this idea is in the talking phase, Blincoe mentioned a grant that would help build the teacher housing while paying students to help with the building process in order for them to gain some work and life skills.
The board also discussed hiring permanent substitute teachers to prevent teachers from scrambling to find a substitute if they are in need of one.
The permanent substitutes would receive pay and benefits, like teachers. They discussed hiring four substitutes.
They noted it was a way to support teachers and make sure they have the help they need while eliminating the struggle of finding substitutes. The board said this would potentially be an action item at the next meeting.
The board unanimously approved hiring Samantha Castillo as the assistant girls basketball coach.
The next board meeting is Jan. 12.
