Kudos to Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 for asking the public what should be done with the old high school building. Now the public needs to apply a healthy dose of realism to the decision-making process. Jamie Haukeness, Kemper Elementary principal who serves as the district’s director of facilities and school safety, has constructed a very solid structure to collect information and support this decision.
The district’s taxpayers approved funding to match a state Building Excellent Schools Today grant for construction of the new school south of Walmart, at least in part because they were told that the existing building was no longer suitable or even safe for students and teachers. The plan included funding to demolish the building.
Construction of the new high school ate up most of those funds, and the presence of friable asbestos throughout parts of the building pushed the cost of demolition considerably higher than original estimates.
The cost of keeping it also is not inconsequential, and nearly everyone agrees that some portions must be closed off because mitigating the problems that exist there cannot be done cost effectively. Once the rest of the building was repaired and renovated, it would need to be heated, cooled, kept secure, cleaned and maintained regularly. All of that would come at a cost that is not in the district budget and would not directly benefit the district’s students. (Neither, of course, would demolition.) There’s little likelihood that tenants would cover all those expenses.
It’s hard to justify spending good money to tear down a building that still has some usable life left in it. Many of the district’s taxpayers subscribe to the Depression-era philosophy, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” The problem now is identifying the point at which careful thrift becomes sentimental waste, because every option involves substantial cost.
Re-1 has retired several buildings from their original purposes. Lakeview Elementary stands empty. The Calkins Building in central Cortez was last used for the district administration. It has fallen victim to vandalism, and although a tentative plan exists to convert the property to housing, that hasn’t happened yet. From there, administrators moved to the former Downey Elementary. One proposal for the old high school involves housing the administrative offices there. Those chess moves don’t hint at a well-conceived long-term facilities plan.
The issue of new athletic facilities is a red herring. The fields and related structures were included in the original plan for the new high school; because of higher-than-expected construction costs, funding fell short. Parents of athletes would like to see the fields built, and they point out that the community would benefit from better/newer sports facilities. That’s true enough, but the fact remains that the district doesn’t have the funds right now either to build a stadium or to demolish the old high school.
The district has other needs as well, and while the money isn’t entirely fungible — tax revenue that voters approved for the high school project cannot be shifted to teacher salaries, for example — both projects need to be considered within the context of the district’s entire funding picture.
With all that in mind, the public can help the district figure out what to do with the old M-CHS building by providing opinions to the school board and the citizen committee that will make a recommendation to the board. By all means, weigh in.
Just keep in mind that saying it won’t make it so, and the next task will be to figure out how to pay for whichever option emerges as a firm recommendation.
