During its regular meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 4, the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education (BoE) unanimously approved a motion to direct Superintendent Rick Holt to continue working on, and to submit, the district’s Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant application for a new school building.
“We have begun the BEST grant application,” Holt said, noting, “and we are on track for … potentially a fall [2029] move in.”
He mentioned that the timeline will ultimately depend on how things go and if the district is approved for the BEST grant, but overall described the process so far as a success with positive feedback coming from the community after the board’s last special meeting, at which it chose to pursue the uptown Vista site for a new building for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade (PK-8).
Holt explained that the BoE needed to approve moving forward in pursuing the BEST grant because it commits ASD to matching funds if awarded.
He also mentioned some new information in regard to the grant’s matching percentage numbers, noting that it “certainly has changed since we first started on the BEST grant.”
Initial figures from last year indicated that BEST would provide a 45 percent match, meaning the district would need to provide 55 percent of the cost in building the new school, Holt explained.
He mentioned that, now, the BEST grant would provide a 42 percent match, leaving the district to cover the remaining 58 percent of the project.
“‘Cause our assessed values continue to go up in Pagosa, that is now a 58/42 match,” Holt said.
Holt also clarified that, if awarded, the BEST grant would provide funds for the actual construction of the new school, and that the 42 percent match would not provide funds for additional projects within the district.
Holt went on to explain that the hope is to have the application finished by Feb. 20 to give the district time to review its application and receive feedback to then submit the final application on March 2.
He noted that the grant awards will be announced the first week of May.
If awarded, ASD would then begin a process of looking for an engineer and architect for the project, Holt explained.
BoE member David Iverson asked if this would be the end of RTA Architects’ involvement, with Holt explaining that RTA would assist with technical portions of the BEST grant application and that is where its scope of work ends.
After unanimously approving a motion to direct Holt to continue pursuing the BEST grant, BoE members noted that the district received a smaller BEST security grant seven years ago, and that Pagosa Peak Open School has also received a smaller BEST grant in the past.
Holt also mentioned that he has been in conversation with BEST’s state representative for over a year now, making some decisions based on the representative’s advice by doing things like conducting a thorough site analysis, providing a large number of public comment opportunities and performing a community survey early on in the process.
“All of that stuff is going to pay off in our application,” he said.
New calendar
The only other action item on the BoE’s Feb. 4 meeting agenda was adopting the 2026-2027 school year calendar.
The calendar was unanimously adopted by the BoE with the one change being that the first day for students has been moved up a week, to before Labor Day, and will be Aug. 31.
BoE President Bob Lynch explained that the district is “not adding any days,” just shifting the calendar and starting one week earlier.
Holt explained that the district’s high school currently starts later than the rest of its athletic partners and later than college courses, noting that “puts our kids at a real disadvantage.”
“We lose multiple weeks of instruction that other students are getting before SAT and AP exams,” he added.
Holt also explained that the long-term goal is to have classes starting in mid-August, as the high school and Student Accountability Committee “really have asked” to move to a mid-August start date.
Holt mentioned a mid-August start date would be a three-week shift in the schedule, which he noted “seemed like a lot to do right out of the gate.”
Holt also mentioned that the calendar committee was pulled together and decided that if the long-term goal is to move the start date to mid-August to give students extra instruction time before high-stakes exams, then that would be a good thing to do.
Holt explained that Labor Day this year falls “pretty deep” into September, and that this is an opportunity to start the week before, “which seems reasonable to me.”
He acknowledged that families might have long-planned vacations that run deep into August and does not want to surprise families with a start date three weeks earlier than normal.
“It does not add a week of school,” he said, noting the calendar is being shifted one week, and he would like to explore the following year to move to a mid-August start date.
Holt also noted that to the best of his knowledge, ASD has not recently started school before Labor Day, noting this may be a “little bit of a change” for families, but that it may not be a bad time to introduce that change.
Holt also clarified that everything else in the calendar is staying the same in regard to early release Fridays and development days.
With the calendar change, teachers will now report for their first day on Aug. 24, Holt noted, and the last day of school will be May 28, before Memorial Day.
BoE member Tim Taylor asked about possibly moving the high school graduation date from May 29 to May 22, as Memorial Day weekend typically has higher prices for airfare and hotels for visiting family and friends.
The final motion was approved with the option of having the high school graduation date moved a week earlier.
clayton@pagosasun.com
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