The Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) Building Corporation closed on the purchase of the former Parelli Natural Horsemanship headquarters on May 1, as a permanent home for Archuleta School District’s K-8 charter school. The school opened its doors in the Parelli building in the fall of 2017, following two years of planning by a founding board composed mainly of local parents.
“PPOS is excited about this milestone for the school,” wrote School Director Angela Reali Crossland in an email.
The building purchase involved a number of parties, with primary financing provided by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development fund. From the USDA RD website:
…We are committed to helping improve the economy and quality of life in rural America. Through our programs, we help rural Americans in many ways.
We offer loans, grants and loan guarantees to help create jobs and support economic development and essential services such as housing; health care; first responder services and equipment; and water, electric and communications infrastructure. We promote economic development by supporting loans to businesses through banks, credit unions and community-managed lending pools. We offer technical assistance and information to help agricultural producers and cooperatives get started and improve the effectiveness of their operations…
USDA RD also helps residents in rural America buy or rent affordable housing and make health and safety repairs to their homes.
The USDA loan was in the amount of $2.9 million, at 2.375% for 40 years. Other contributors towards the purchase included the Town of Pagosa Springs, who applied for and received a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA); and local businessman and activist Mark Weiler, who donated $1 million. The total purchase price was $4.4 million, and PPOS was able to add $100,000 to its fund reserves.
Colorado’s TABOR laws restrict government entities from entering into multi-year debt without the approval of district voters, so a group of volunteers formed a non-profit building corporation to enter into purchase agreements with the various parties. Bylaws of the building corporation are written to ensure Pagosa Peak Open School is the primary beneficiary of all building proceeds. Most public school buildings are funded by general obligation bonds covered by a special tax mill levy, but charter schools typically pay for their buildings using normal ‘per pupil’ income, grants, and loans.
According to PPOS business manager Chenni Hammon, the Parelli organization will continue to occupy the building’s warehouse space for the next several months, while gradually moving its shipping operations to the Parelli Ranch west of town.
When the PPOS founders submitted their 450-page charter application to the Archuleta School District in 2016, the school planned to open its doors as a K-4 elementary school during the first year, and then add an additional grade level each year, to eventually become a K-8 school. The school will be K-7 next school year.
The School District-approved plan describes a small, family-friendly school using a ‘Project Based Learning’ educational model. Classes currently have a 15-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Most of the grades have full enrollment for next year, but the school is accepting applications for the waiting list.
Prior to the state-ordered closure of schools in Colorado due to the COVID pandemic, PPOS was occupying the entire first floor of the two-story building. The purchase will allow the staff and board leadership to explore ways to expand into the second floor offices, and the Facilities Committee will be holding a special online meeting tomorrow, Friday, May 15, to discuss the potential for ‘social distanced’ learning this coming fall. Specific directions for how schools will operate in September have not yet been defined by the state government, and schools are maintaining a wait-and-see attitude about future operations, to ensure public health safety among students and staff.
“We look forward to renovating the building to best fit our Project Based Learning needs,” Ms. Reali Crossland stated. “It will not only bring expanded educational space, but more security for our students and, hopefully, a licensed kitchen for food service in the near future. As we build out the building we hope to partner with other nonprofit organizations to create a community hub that supports education in many forms.”
Eventually, the school will likely occupy most of the building, but some space could be made available to other community organizations by the summer of 2021. The school administration has been in discussions with a few area non-profits, but nothing as been finalized. According to Ms. Hammon, the staff intends to begin cleaning and renovating the upper floor offices to become classrooms. An engineer has been hired to design changes to the HVAC system to accommodate the building change-of-use.
“We need to enclose the atrium and front stairwell,” said Ms. Hammon. “We’ll be adding fire security doors to the stairwell and making needed repairs to the roof and parking lot. We hope to have these items completed in the next 12 months.”
Community members wishing to make tax-deductible donations to the school can contact the school office at 970-317-2151.