Archuleta School District (ASD) submitted a press release to the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN last Friday, regarding the recent decision by the BEST (“Building Excellent Schools Today”) advisory board to grant school construction awards to 17 Colorado school districts.
The grant awards did not include the project proposed by ASD. The advisory board put ASD’s $50 million request in 18th place… first on the ‘waitlist.’ Typically, projects placed on the BEST ‘waitlist’ have a good chance of getting funded if they reapply in future years.
That being said, the amounts available in the BEST budget have seen a steady decline in recent years, and the ASD request was one of the largest proposals this year, second only to the Kiowa School District request for $68 million.
The press release was also shared with the members of ASD’s Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC).
From the press release:
Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant awards for the FY26-27 BEST Grant cycle were announced on May 21.
This year, the BEST Board had just $173 million to allocate and $536 million in requests. They awarded 17 grants – two of which are bond-dependent – and named our project as the first backup project.
Being named 18th out of 57 total applications is promising, especially as a large ($50 million) grant request.
For context, only three total projects larger than $20 million were awarded this year. Unfortunately, even if both bond-dependent projects were to fail to secure the required matching funds, there would not be enough remaining dollars to fully fund our $50 million application request.
However, our ranking indicates a high likelihood that our proposed project would be funded by BEST next year. The board will discuss options on how they want to proceed at the June 3 work session.
Potential options forward include:
- The possibility of pursuing a bond in November 2026 and then reapply for a BEST grant next spring with the matching dollars secured, or
- Wait for next year’s BEST grant awards and, if awarded, then pursue a bond in November 2027.
If the board decides to pursue a bond (this year or next), we will have to reapply for a BEST grant for the required matching funds.
The School Board’s June 3 work session is scheduled for 5pm at the Middle School Library, to be followed by a 6pm regular meeting. The public is invited to address the Board at the beginning of the regular meeting.
I found it interesting that the ASD press release contained very little information about why the District applied for a BEST grant this year… and for what proposed project… and what the future impacts might be to Archuleta County property taxes.
The District presented some ideas about a proposed $126 million PreK-8 facility at a May 21 ‘Community Conversations’ event sponsored by the Archuleta County Republican Party and the Archuleta County Democratic Party, with added support from the Archuleta County League of Women Voters. If the District were eventually awarded $50 million by BEST, the rest of the $126 million cost — about $76 million — would need to be approved by Archuleta County voters, to be funded by property tax increases.
Except that, lately, it seems like the cost of government-funded construction projects have been inflating by about 10% per year. This suggests that, if the School Board decides to reapply for a BEST grant next year, they would be asking for maybe $55 million, with Archuleta County property owners responsible for maybe $84 million. (If voters approve.)
I’ve been following this proposed project fairly closely for a few reasons.
For one, my property taxes have already more than doubled over the past decade. (They’re still much lower, however, than I would be paying for a similar home in, for example, Illinois or California.)
Also, I’ve served on the MPAC advisory committee for the past year or so.
But most importantly, I sit on the Board for Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) — the tuition-free K-8 charter school that ASD authorized in 2017. The ASD Board and staff have consistently stated that any bond-issue placed before the voters (in November 2026 or 2027) would include funding for upgrades to the PPOS building.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer on the Pagosa Peak Open School board of directors, but this editorial reflects only my own personal opinions and not necessarily the opinions of the PPOS board or staff.
PPOS is located in the Aspen Village mixed-use subdivision near Walmart, and obtained grants over the past four years worth about $2 million, which funded security and ventilation upgrades and added a new ‘community playground’ that’s open to the public after school and on weekends. It’s the only public playground in Aspen Village.
However, PPOS is housed in a former office building (formerly Parelli Natural Horsemanship headquarters) and rents out the building’s xxx-square-foot ‘warehouse’ space because it doesn’t meet code requirements for public school use. The PPOS Facilities Committee is proposing major upgrades to the warehouse at a cost of perhaps $1-$2 million, if ASD puts a bond issue before the voters on a future ballot… and if PPOS is included in that bond issue.
Obviously, I have conflicted feelings about the direction the ASD Board has been taking.
While PPOS continues to upgrade its former office building to better serve our students, the ASD Board is proposing to abandon two multi-million-dollar school facilities in downtown Pagosa Springs to build a brand new PreK-8 facility on Vista Boulevard, at the west end of town, at a cost of $126 million.
It may be appropriate, as part of this discussion, to talk about the general direction public education appears to be headed in 2026.
From a February 2026 article by in the ColoradoSun.com:
Colorado’s student count continues to fall in many parts of the state, with overall enrollment in public schools plummeting by more than 10,000 this school year to 870,793 kids in preschool through 12th grade classrooms.
The drops first hit Colorado schools during the pandemic, when enrollment saw a serious decrease of nearly 30,000 kids, a 3.3% drop in overall enrollment. Student counts dipped again during each of the past three school years, according to state data.
Declining enrollment is a trend that’s happening beyond Colorado, with schools across the country also seeing fewer kids showing up to classrooms. The National Center for Education Statistics projects that by 2032, enrollment will drop to 46.9 million kids from 50.8 million in 2019…
Total enrollment in Archuleta County public schools had dropped by about 7% since 2019. But enrollment has been increasing at PPOS.