Summarizing feedback from a series of community engagement meetings about the condition and future of Archuleta School District schools, Superintendent Rick Holt reported Tuesday, Dec. 10, that the message was clear.
“The big takeaway for me was that there is overwhelming support at this time to pursue what it would look like for additional resources to improve the quality of our schools,” Holt said during the district’s regular board meeting.
The support, gathered in part from surveys distributed at the meetings, coalesced primarily around Pagosa Springs Elementary School and Pagosa Springs Middle School, according to Holt, but extended to other buildings within the district, as well, including Pagosa Springs High School.
“At this time, my interpretation is that we want to discuss [and] begin looking at options for increasing funds to support the schools,” Holt said.
As he did during the first community meeting, Holt suggested Tuesday that the district finds itself at a fork in the road — with one path representing additional efforts and funds to maintain the current state of the schools and the other leading somewhere more progressive and, as of Tuesday, less defined.
“There’s going to be a left-hand turn we can take, where the community would say, we want to add additional resources to help the schools improve — that has yet to be said what that might look like,” Holt said. “And then the right-hand turn [is] we continue to draw down the general fund budget, which includes both the dollars that we spend on our yearly amount for maintenance plus the additional nearly $750,000 a year we’re investing in capital improvements.”
Early indications reflect a community ready to explore turning left, Holt told the board, with about 90 percent of survey respondents indicating the district “should consider doing something different,” especially at the elementary and middle schools.
To help plot the course, Holt reported a planning advisory team made up of “a broad spectrum” of community members would soon convene — liaising with the architectural firm hired by the district to assess the schools, as well as with the community at large.
“That group will meet in January, I would say tentatively beginning to meet monthly as we move forward through exploring possibilities,” Holt said.
He added that the district is far from finished soliciting input from the community and pledged to post master plan news and updates to the district’s website, www.mypagosaschools.com.
“I don’t think we’ve reached our maximum capacity for community engagement,” Holt said, noting that fewer than 200 people completed the survey the district is using to gauge public support.
“But, I think as we continue to move forward, we’ll draw attention as we start discussing what our other options are,” he said. “[The district] will keep the community well-informed and in the driver’s seat of this decision.”
Board president Bob Lynch added, “We’ll keep marching on.”
garrett@pagosasun.com
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