Photo: Meeting of the ASD Master Plan Advisory Committee, Pagosa Springs Middle School Library, February 2025.
The Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education has scheduled a work session for this Wednesday, June 3, at 5pm at the Middle School library, with a rather simple agenda.
The Board will discuss potential next steps following receipt of the recent Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Grant ranking results. Options for consideration may include:
- Pursuing a bond initiative in November 2026 and reapplying for a BEST Grant in spring 2027 with secured matching funds; OR
- Waiting for the next round of BEST Grant awards and, if awarded funding, pursuing a bond initiative in November 2027;
- Poll Language
ASD was not awarded a BEST grant in the 2026-2027 funding cycle, although their application ranked at the top of the waitlist.
Typically, government boards do not make final decisions during work sessions, but are more likely to “direct staff” to bring forward additional information at a future business meeting.
When I wrote Part Four last week, I thought I had finished my editorial series. But education — and taxation — are enormously complex subjects.
Which is not to suggest that they are taught in school, as subjects. We know that most kids study algebra and geometry in our public schools, and we know that 90% of them will never use algebra or geometry at any point in their lives after graduation.
But 100% of them will pay taxes. We might wonder why schools don’t teach that subject? I personally find that omission bewildering.
Following the 5pm work session on Wednesday, the School Board will hold a reception for retiring staff.
6:00 – 6:30pm
Board of Education Recognition Reception Honoring 2025-2026 Retirees.
The retirement of experienced staff is a mixed blessing for a school district. On the one hand, the district may struggle to find competent replacement staff, especially perhaps among support staff — bus drivers, teaching assistants, custodial staff and so on. On the other hand, the new staff will typically begin at lower salaries than the retiring staff was paid, which takes some pressure off the annual budget.
The School Board will then hold a regular business meeting, with a more complex agenda. Curiously, perhaps, the agenda does not mention any discussion of the BEST grant issues related to the proposed abandonment of three downtown school buildings and the potential construction of a new $126 million PreK-8 facility on Vista Boulevard. Such a project would involve placing a bond issue before Archuleta County voters, as suggested in the 5pm work session agenda .
The agenda does include, however, a discussion of potential facility upgrades at Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) — if ASD does decide to place a bond issue before the voters at some point in the future.
PPOS is a tuition-free public school, chartered by ASD in alignment with the Colorado Charter School Act of 1993. From the Colorado Department of Education website:
Charter schools are tuition-free, public schools that have the flexibility to be innovative, entrepreneurial, self-governing, and yet are held accountable for student and operational performance. Open to all students, each of these independent public schools is different, increasing the variety of high-quality school choices available across Colorado.
PPOS operates its “Project Based Learning” school in a former office building in Aspen Village, near Walmart, and currently has no dedicated gymnasium space. But the office building includes an attached “warehouse” that has recently provided space to Forge martial arts and gymnastics programs. If ASD moves forward with a bond issue in the future, some of the proposed funding may be earmarked for upgrading the PPOS warehouse into a dedicated gymnasium and education space.
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.
I’ve made the argument in this editorial series that Archuleta County voters have been historically reluctant to approve bond issues for shiny new buildings, but have been willing to tax themselves for upgrades and improvements to existing buildings — as recently as 2018 and 2023. Over the past 9 years, PPOS has invested over $2 million in grant funding to upgrade the former Parelli Natural Horsemanship office building into a high-quality school. None of those dollars have come from ASD. So the promise from ASD to support upgrades at PPOS in a future bond issue, is hopeful.
This promise suggests, to me, a question that could be asked of local taxpayers, if the School Board decides to poll the community this summer — as suggested in the Wednesday work session agenda.
ASD conducted a survey last summer, specifically asking voters about their likely support for a new $126 million school facility, and a slight majority of respondents gave a positive response.
But that survey did not mention possible funding support for PPOS, Pagosa Springs High School, San Juan Mountain School, or Build Pagosa to be included in the bond proposal.
That survey did not mention that the $126 million facility would be located on Vista Boulevard.
And perhaps most importantly, the survey did not ask voters if they would prefer to upgrade our existing school buildings to improve the education offered… at a much lower tax rate… rather than build an entirely new facility.
I’ve been involved a a number of local political campaigns over the past 20 years, with the goal of providing Pagosa taxpayers with full and complete information about the political options.
Our local governments do not always provide full and complete information, when placing items on the ballot. In fact, I would argue that our local governments almost never provide full and complete information to help voters make the best choice about a proposed tax increase.
That’s another skill that could be taught in our schools: government transparency.