The Ridge at Fox Run

School Board looks at Growth

School Board looks at Growth

This article is from the July 15, 1999 issue of the Tri-Lakes Tribune.


Local School Board looks at growth measures

By Dave Rootes

The District 38 school board held an informal meeting last Thursday night to discuss growth issues and consider personnel issues.
Both Tom Taylor, of the Jackson Creek Community, and Duncan Bremer, El Paso County Commissioner, visited with school board members during the course of the evening. The principle topic of conversation was how to deal most effectively with the impact of the local population explosion on the district.
According to Superintendent Ted Bauman, the subject was the possibility of a middle school site in the Jackson Creek area. "This is all ifs at this point, because we are not sure about the bond issue," Bauman said. "But the good news is that Tom (Taylor) is pretty confident about being able to give us a site in Jackson Creek."
One reason for the more definitive outlook on the middle school site is that testing for Preble's mouse habitat in the Jackson Creek area this summer turned up few rodents of the protected species. According to Bauman, wildlife officials will re-trap in August to be sure of the count. However, indications are that, in this area at least, the mouse may not be a major problem.
A growth consideration discussed with Duncan Bremer was the difficulty school officials have had in getting some builders to communicate with the district about the importance of making new subdivisions school and student-friendly. "One concern of ours is that if we get 50 to 100 little building sites, none of them are big enough to be required to set aside a place for a school."
Smaller builders do submit fees to the district in lieu of land, yet there can be significant problems for the district in converting fees into real estate which is suitable for a new school.
Asked about possible answers to the problem, Bauman said consideration is being given to some plan to limit the size of subdivisions to those large enough to provide land. Alternatively, the county could require small developers to get together with others and create a kind of conglomerate big enough to donate land instead of fees.
Another problem has been that developers have not always done much to provide sidewalks, or off-road paths, which make it safer for school kids to walk to school or the bus stop. "We would like to encourage, if not require, developers to come to us and discuss what they are doing," Bauman said. "We would like them to at least put in gutters and sidewalks or walkways."
Bauman said the board was very appreciative of Commissioner Bremer's taking the time to come and visit. "He was very supportive of collaboration between the district and county planners to deal with growth issues," Bauman said.
In other news, the board has selected an architect to do the design work on a new middle and a new elementary school, in the area if a bond issue is presented and approved by the voters. Christiansen Reece & Partners of Colorado Springs has been. involved with the district before, doing work at Lewis-Palmer High School and as well as the current middle school. "We were pleased to hear that we had been selected, and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the district," said Leland Reece of the firm. "We are very excited about the district's projects and we are ready to get going."'
Finally, the board approved a resolution to hire Hal Garland, formerly of Academy School District 20, as the new Transportation Supervisor. "We are really excited to bring Hal to our district," Bauman said. "He handled transportation in the Harrison School District 20, so he has a good background in high-growth districts."