The news that Pleasant View Elementary School will potentially close in 2023 hit like a hurricane, and parents, students and community members are still reeling. One solution is to create a charter school, a herculean task to complete in a year’s time. Charter-group leaders would have to hit the ground running now.
The good news is Montezuma-Cortez School District is open to handing over the school. “My preference is to give them the school,” said interim Superintendent Tom Burris.
Of course, Burris wouldn’t make this decision alone. But it’s a nice option to keep the doors open. The district could sell the property but would have limitations on how to use profits. Say the property sold for $1 million. Burris said he couldn’t use the money to pay salaries but could, for example, re-carpet the high school. But that’s not needed now. “I’d go with choice A and give it to the community,” he said.
As reported in The Journal, the board unanimously voted on June 29 to close Manaugh Elementary School, deteriorating with 18 critical staffing vacancies. But it was the amended resolution to close Pleasant View, which saw a 4-2 vote, that drew impassioned pleas to delay a decision and find a solution. Built in 1955, Pleasant View is badly outdated and out of compliance with state code. The community strongly supports this school of 31 students and two staffers, evidenced by the robust showing of 50 people at an informational meeting.
It’s all happening too fast, they said. Let us do something, write grants, whatever it takes.
Yesterday, Jennifer Lanier, who has three children at Pleasant View, said a number of parents and community members “have shown support in creating a charter school.”
Their enthusiasm will be put to the test.
The charter application process is lengthy; the review is thorough. Pleasant View members must pool resources, call in people with the right skills to get the application done correctly the first time. The charter would need a crystal clear vision, a manifestation of what the community solidly wants.
And they know what they want. It’s the essence of what was created and nurtured at Pleasant View. They already have their ideal model.
