I am horrified to learn that the city of Cortez is now condoning warehousing of our children!
Montessori Kiva elementary students will attend school in two 1950s warehouses where there has been no testing for lead-based paint, lead in the water system, residual carcinogens from previous uses, structural stability, state inspected electrical, plumbing or fire flow in the waterlines. Nor do these buildings have sprinkler systems for fire, proper ingress and egress, alarm systems or proper bathrooms for 130 children and staff.
They will have to cross a busy street multiple times per day to eat and exercise in a building with an auto body shop where toxic fumes seep into the area. Also, there are no safe routes for schools in the business district where they are half a block from a state highway, where the accident density is the highest on Main Street. There is a restaurant right next door that serves alcohol and an addictions recovery center right around the corner all of which is known to the city of Cortez and parents of these children. I read in shock that these children were used as tools at the City Council meeting to speak to Council and most of them fell asleep as the meeting drug out.
The school district believes that a new school fosters our children’s education and it’s obvious that the City Council or the administration and the representative for the Montessori school do not believe this. The city has been called a lot of things but I think kid-friendly is not one of them! If one child gets harmed in any way it is my opinion it is on the City Council and city manager.
Cathy Turner
Cortez