Walk up to the science building on the Dolores High School campus and it doesnt take long before you see problems.
Theres one problem, said Alfonso Goad, who works with maintenance at the RE-4A Dolores School District.
He points up to the side of the building near the entrance, the siding is hanging down, sagging from water damage and that is just the beginning of the problems.
Inside the cinder-block building, constructed in 1976, there are no windows and cracks can be seen at nearly every corner.
See that metal bracket, Goad pointed out. That is holding the walls together.
During construction the cinder-block walls were stacked next to each other, a bit like you would stack building blocks next to each other. The walls were not properly tied together.
The result the walls are starting to separate and large metal pieces in the corners are what is currently holding them together.
It creates other issues too.
If you look just right, you can see into the other classroom, said Dave Hopcia, Dolores High School Science teacher.
And sure enough, if you stand at the corner of his classroom and look through the crack, a bit of light shines through, from the classroom next door.
Also, the shelves in Hopcias room are all topped with something that isnt educational buckets.
The buckets are there to protect books and science tools when, not if, the room leaks.
It would just cost way too much for us to fix everything wrong with this building, said Dolores School District Superintendent Scott Cooper.
So once again, the RE-4A school district is readying an application for a BEST Grant. The district did the same thing last year and learned they didnt make the cut. BEST grant funding is money set aside from School Trust Lands and lottery revenues to repair and build new schools. The acronym stands for Building Excellent Schools Today and schools that qualify for the grant must, usually, come up with a match. Dolores would likely have to come up with a 50 percent match.
Our top priority is rebuilding the science building, Cooper said.
The science building was the top priority in last years application, but Cooper said this year, the application is going to be different, something he plans to explain to the community tonight, Jan. 17, at 6:30 p.m. during a community forum.
For starters, the wish list will be trimmed.
Last year, the wish list included an all-weather track and a connection between the high school and the commons area.
This year we are just focusing on the buildings that the BEST Board deemed most in need, Cooper said.
Last year, the wish list was about $7.5 million. Cooper hopes this years application can be trimmed to around $5 million.
That would mean the school district would be requesting about $2.5 million from the BEST Board and the other $2.5 million would be funded through a voter-approved bond this November.
Cooper hopes the smaller price tag will put Dolores in a category that doesnt have as much competition, and there is going to be some heavy competition because this is the last year the BEST Grant will be offered.
This is the last year that schools have the opportunity to have half of their capital improvement projects paid for, Cooper said.
While the science building is the main focus of this grant, Cooper said the BEST Board was also supportive of the connection between the elementary and the commons area and the remodel of the locker rooms.
Currently elementary students have to walk outside, often in the snow, to go to lunch or the library.
The locker rooms are also a big issue. The showers are so old in the boys locker room, they arent used and the locker room is so poorly designed, visiting teams must change inside the library.
The remodel will make four locker rooms, two for the girls and two for the boys, so visiting teams can change in locker rooms and the middle and high school students will be in different locker rooms for physical education.
Cooper is hoping to get the publics opinion about the projects, where a list of projects and costs will be presented.
The BEST Grant application is due in March and the BEST Board makes decisions on the grants by July 1.
Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 is currently deciding if they will submit an application to go for the state grants in 2012.
Last year, the Southwest Open School in Cortez was awarded the BEST grant but voters easily defeated the required bond measure in November.
