The Re-1 school board voted unanimously Tuesday to form a community task force to help decide what to do with the old Montezuma-Cortez High School.
The M-CHS Facility Community Task Force will be made up of interested citizens, school board members, Re-1 staff and local officials. They will give recommendations to the Re-1 board on the fate of the old campus.
Community meetings are planned over a three-month period and will take place in the library of the new high school. No meetings have been scheduled yet.
Whether the old campus should be torn down or repurposed has been a hot topic in Cortez. The school board decided it needed more time and community input before making a decision.
“We don’t want to jump into anything,” said board member Sherry Wright. “We need to include the community and get them involved.”
Board member Pete Montano agreed.
“Everything is on the table. It is not our building, it’s the community’s building,” he said.
Re-1 officials have been studying how much it would cost to bring the building up to acceptable and safe conditions for public use. Board members requested a tour of the old campus with to assess its condition and possibilities.
Principal Jamie Haukeness gave a presentation on construction needs and cost estimates for re-occupying the old school.
It would cost a minimum of $500,000 in construction costs, repairs and new or upgraded heating and cooling systems to move back into 50 percent of the old campus. Large areas of the campus would need to be mothballed because of lack of use or need, and the site may need to be rezoned by the city if businesses moved in.
Discussions have included re-opening the building for administrative and other district uses, relocating the Kiva Charter school into the old campus, and even renting it out to other businesses.
Officials have reported that the costs of demolishing the building and associated asbestos abatement are between $1.3 million and $2.2 million. There has been community pushback at the idea of tearing down the old school.
“Some segments of the community feel the option to move into the building was not fully explored and believe there needs to be a platform for input prior to a decision being made,” Haukeness said.
There has been talk of re-allocating $1.7 million set aside for a new stadium toward dealing with the old campus.
Monica Plewe, of the Re-1 District Accountability Board, said that board recommends that the decision of what to do with the money be put to the voters.
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
