Photo: Work session of the Archuleta School District, June 3, 2026.
The Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education met in an hour-long work session on Wednesday, June 3, to consider ‘next steps’ — after failing to win a Colorado Department of Education BEST (“Building Excellent Schools Today”) grant last month. ASD had requested $50 million from BEST, to be matched by $76 million from local property taxes (potentially, if voters were to approve the necessary tax increase.)
BEST grants were awarded to 17 other school districts, for a total of $173 million in grants. ASD was one of 40 applicant school districts not funded for 2026-2027.
ASD has proposed to abandon three downtown school buildings and build a new PreK-8 facility on Vista Boulevard, at an estimated cost of $126 million. The project would be financed mainly through investor-held bonds, with a total repayment amount — including principal and interest — of about $220 million. (That’s a Daily Post calculation of the total cost.)
The proposal to collect $76 million from increased local property taxes has not yet been approved by the voters. That approval might still might be sought in November. But it might not.
How to move forward on the proposed new facility… without a BEST grant award?
And what about the other district facilities — Pagosa Springs High School, San Juan Mountain School, and Pagosa Peak Open School — in need of repairs and upgrades? Would that funding also be part of the ballot measure?
Those were some questions at last Wednesday’s work session… the most important question being, “What will the voters support?”
Only one sure way to answer that particular question. Put something on the ballot.
Three out-of-town consultants had zoomed into the Wednesday work session — Doug Abernethy with RTA Architects, Lynea Hansen with Hansen Communications, and Kathryn Hahne with New Bridge Strategy — all seemingly eager to help the $220 million project move forward.
The three consultants are assisting with the possible facility project from slightly different angles. Doug Abernethy and his team at RTA Architects guided ASD’s Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC) in looking at facility issues, from January through April 2025. Later that summer, Ms. Hansen and Ms. Hahne were involved in surveying likely voters, to take the community’s temperature on a potential property tax increase.
I served on the MPAC during the RTA-led process, and I was disappointed by the lack of full transparency, and lack of meaningful debate, during that four-month process. It appeared to me that RTA had entered the process with a predetermined outcome in mind — namely, a BEST application (which they would assist ASD in writing) followed by a voter-approved property tax increase to fund a new PreK-8 facility… and the sale or demolition of three existing school buildings and their surrounding playgrounds and infrastructure.
From what I could tell, most of the other members of the MPAC did not share in my feelings of disappointment.
Disclosure: I currently serve as a volunteer Board member for Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS), our District-authorized K-8 charter school, and infrastructure upgrades at PPOS could conceivably be included in a future ASD bond proposal, to our school’s obvious benefit. From that perspective, I am generally supportive of a future ballot measure that has a good chance of getting voter approval. This editorial expresses only my own personal opinions, however, and not necessarily the opinions of the PPOS Board or staff.
The School Board began planning for this facility project several years ago, with little evidence that local voters would willingly approve a bond for one or more new school facilities. The district had proposed a similar K-8 school complex in 2011, and the bond issue was rejected by the voters by a 3-to-1 margin. Then in 2017, RTA Architects was hired to guide a citizen advisory committee through a planning process for a new facility, and after receiving input from that committee, the School Board decided against moving ahead with a bond issue.
Instead, the School Board proposed a much less expensive ‘Mill Levy Override’ property tax increase capped at $1.7 million per year, to increase staff salaries and make safety and security upgrades to existing buildings. That MLO ballot issue was approved by the voters, and renewed in 2023.
We will be discussing the MLO option in more detail, later in this editorial series.
At an hour-long School Board work session on June 3, three out-of-town consultants gave the Board advice about possible next steps. The discussion touched on four funding ideas:
1. ASD could go to the voters this coming November, asking them to fund the entire $220 million bond issue, funded by a local property tax increase.
2. ASD could go to the voters this coming November, asking them to fund a $135 million bond issue funded by local property taxes — contingent on ASD winning a $50 million BEST grant in 2027 or maybe 2028. The tax increase would kick in only if a BEST grant were awarded in the future.
3. ASD could go to the voters, asking them to fund a larger bond issue — maybe $150 million? — also contingent winning a future $50 million BEST grant, to build the PreK-8 facility plus additional millions for repairs and upgrades to Pagosa Springs High School, Pagosa Peak Open School, and other facilities.
4. ASD could wait until 2027 and see if they win a $50 million BEST grant next spring, and if successful, then put a bond issue in front of the voters in November 2027.
The dollar amounts listed above are Daily Post estimates, because estimates were not fully laid out for the School Board on Wednesday.
Those were the options discussed by the School Board and the three consultants on Wednesday.
A more practical and feasible option was not discussed, although I had hoped it would be.
But we can discuss it here in the Daily Post.
Before ASD makes its next decision about massive new government debt and how to potentially fund it, the School Board would like to have a better sense of how the voters are feeling, and Ms. Hansen and Ms. Hahne appear ready and willing to survey a sampling of local voters.
I came upon a graphic illustrating a recent Gallup poll, asking Americans if their financial situation is “getting better” or “getting worse”.
It would appear that, at the moment, most Americans — like, 55% — feel anxious about their financial situation. According to this graphic, Americans are more anxious about their finances than at any time in the past 25 years — worse than during the Great Recession, and worse than during the COVID crisis.
I suspect, if Gallup had surveyed business owners in downtown Pagosa Springs, the graphic would look even more dire…
Read Part Two… on Monday…