Photo: Pagosa Peak Open School, on a winter day.
As mentioned previously in this editorial series, I currently serve as a volunteer on the Pagosa Peak Open School Board of Directors. PPOS is a tuition-free public school open to all Archuleta County families, and is part of the Archuleta School District (ASD).
The school operates in a former office building in Aspen Village near the Walmart store, and recently installed a new grant-funded $800,000 playground that’s now open to the public after school hours and on weekends. We expect the PPOS playground to become a popular public gathering spot once the new 50-unit Timberline Apartments, on the opposite side of Walmart, are fully rented.
These new apartments are reportedly priced to be affordable for working families.
[Units] at Timberline have covered entries, nine-foot ceilings, granite countertops, walk-in closets, covered balconies, and personal storage. Faux wood floors, energy-efficient appliances, and recessed lighting make life easier and comfortable. Around the community, you’ll find a 24-7 fitness center, business center, covered grilling area, off-leash dog park, community laundry, and high-speed Wi-Fi in the clubhouse…
You can learn more about Timberline at their website.
If the School District moves ahead with current plans to place a property tax increase on the November 2026 ballot, it’s likely that PPOS will be included in the funding plan. As a PPOS board member, it’s part of my duty to ensure the financial viability of our school.
As editor of the Pagosa Daily Post, I take it as my duty to ask hard questions about how governments operate, and how they spend our taxes.
It’s a balancing act.
If you have been following this editorial series, you know that on January 7, the Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education met in the Middle School library to hear from the public, and to discuss two possible locations for a proposed new PreK-8 facility.
The members of the public who spoke were almost unanimously in favor of locating this proposed new facility adjacent to the Pagosa Springs High School, even though this location could result in the loss of up to three softball fields.
Following the input from the public and District staff, the School Board compiled a list of the “advantages” and “disadvantages” of each site. We shared the “advantages list” yesterday in Part Two.
Here are the “disadvantages” proposed by the School Board (which were listed under the heading “Concerns”):
High School Site:
High School-age drivers with young children walking around
Traffic congestion
Relative lack of vacant land at the site
Limited ability to expand in order to meet future needs
Problems with scheduling shared athletic fields
Possible poor governance (Risk)
Estimated $8 million more to build than at the Vista location
100% of school administrators expressed disapproval of the location
District staff did not prefer the HS site
Potential conflict between MS and HS students
Concentration of students in one location if evacuation were required
Vista Boulevard Site:
Community sentiment for the downtown site
Displacing downtown schools could negatively impact downtown culture, activities
Might complicate drop offs for parent of students in multiple schools
Lost opportunities for MS students to access academics at HS
Initially isolated and disconnected from other resources
Lacks trail and walkability, existing after school activities
Did not poll high during June ASD voter survey
Traffic flow could be a challenge
Although discussions about abandoning three existing school buildings to build a shiny new facility — estimated to cost between $122 million and $130 million — has been ongoing for about 18 months, the Archuleta School Board has never (to my knowledge) discussed the idea of actually upgrading and fixing our existing Elementary and Middle School buildings.
Nor did the Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC) discuss the idea of upgrades and repairs to those two schools, during several months of meetings, prior to advising the School Board to move ahead with funding a new PreK-8 facility somewhere in Archuleta County.
At the January 7 School Board meeting, it appeared from the School Board discussion that they had serious doubts about Archuleta County voters approving a $122-$130 million property tax increase. But the School Board and the MPAC have been assured that the District could obtain a Colorado Department of Education BEST grant (“Building Excellent Schools Today”) which would — if awarded — pay up to 45% of the costs for the new facility.
BEST grants are highly competitive, and ASD may need to apply repeatedly in order to win a grant, we have been told. But eventually, BEST would come around to helping fund a new facility in Archuleta County. Or so we have been told.
According to my pocket calculator, 45% of a $123 million facility cost (at the Vista location) would mean about $55 million coming from BEST. 45% of a $130 million facility (at the High School location) would be about $59 million.
According to my preliminary research, the BEST program budget has been declining in recent years, as Colorado has struggled with various budget issues. The estimated amount available for all potential school grants in 2026 appears to be between $62 million and $65 million.
We might wonder whether BEST would be likely to grant $59 million — almost their entire budget — to one school district… a district which is proposing to abandon three functional school buildings with relatively new roofing… when there are perhaps 50 other school district projects already on the waiting list, some of which are in dire need and have already been waiting for a number of years.
We also might wonder if Archuleta County taxpayers would agree to pay the remaining $71 million.
According to an article by journalist Erica Breunlin in the Colorado Sun, construction for a new K-12 school was about $350 per square foot, prior to the COVID crisis. That price has now jumped to $700 or more per square foot.
According to the numbers shared at the January 7 School Board meeting, the estimated cost of the proposed PreK-8 facility — when you include total site development — is about $930 per square foot. ($130 million divided by 140,000 square feet.)
Nearly triple the typical cost in 2019.
For comparison purposes, the Taj Mahal measures about 32,000 square feet and cost about $825 million in today’s currency.
So… about $26,000 per square foot. But the Taj Mahal is as tall as a 20-story building, and includes vast gardens and ornate outbuildings. Reportedly, it took 20 years to build.
My ongoing complaint — which I’ve shared repeatedly with the ASD School Board and staff — is that we’ve never been allowed to discuss how our existing school buildings could be renovated, upgraded, and repaired to provide educational benefits similar to a totally new facility, at a much lower cost.