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| 11/13/2009 11:34:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| School Ends
Pat Lewis (in white top, red skirt), principal of Lake George Charter School, sees students off at the end of the day Nov. 9. A banner over the school’s front door announces a “meet the candidates” forum taking place that evening. (Photo by Todd Powell/The Flume) |
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Lake George Charter School looks to build new facility
By Todd Powell - Correspondent
Individual classrooms per grade level. Energy efficiency and a roof that doesn't leak. Better design. A more professional image. Those are some of the things Principal Pat Lewis looks forward to at the new Lake George Charter School facility now that voters have passed ballot issue 3A.
"I think this can only lead to good things," she said.
Ballot issue 3A included matching moneys not to exceed $900,000 for a new school facility in Lake George, contingent upon a state grant under the Building Excellent Schools Today program.
"If the BEST Grant that Lake George will apply for in March 2010 is approved, the State will pay 87 percent of the cost of new construction for that facility. The 13 percent matching funds, approximately $900,000, would be included in the bond," according to bestforsouthparkschools.com.
Tonia Montgomery is a 13-year employee of the charter school, doing custodial work, maintenance and cooking. She hopes for a place where "everything works," she said.
The current school shows evidence of the creative approaches taken to get some jobs done in a pinch. Duct tape has been used to patch leaks in the ceiling, Montgomery said. Large pieces of carpet hang on the walls and on the ceiling rafters in the cafeteria/gymnasium to help stifle echoes. A door to the kitchen area is difficult to open. She showed a drafty, leaky storage area where she keeps portable stages and other equipment.
"I'd like to have a normal gym for the kids to come in and out of, just ... nice stuff," Montgomery said.
The school's business manager, Lona Moreland, walked by. "How do you feel about the new school, Lona?" Montgomery called. Moreland responded with a cheer and a wave of her arms.
The new charter school is planned for a 35-acre location about three-quarters of a mile south of the current school on U.S. 24. The site is marked with a "thank you" sign in the shape of a red schoolhouse. The location was chosen, Lewis said, for its visibility from the highway (but not so close as to be unsafe) and its close proximity to the Lake George area.
Before the hopes of Lewis and Montgomery can come true, the Park County School District Re-2 must win approval of the BEST grant.
Approval of the ballot issue authorized a debt increase of $16 million and a property tax increase of $1.47 million a year to pay for school facility improvements in Lake George and Fairplay. The issue was put before voters to raise the money to pay the local matching funds necessary to be awarded a BEST grant.
The Lake George grant application will be available in January and is due to be completed in April, Lewis said. A decision from the Colorado Department of Education will come in May.
"We're already working closely with CDE to make sure that we're providing them the information they feel is critical to our acceptance," she said.
Given that a Department of Education statewide assessment has already determined the charter school is of "extreme high need" for a new facility in a safer location, Lewis said she's confident the grant will be approved. In the unlikely event that it's not, the taxes voters approved in the bond issue won't be assessed.
Once the grant is approved, Lewis said, a facilities committee would be established with representation from Lake George and the school district. The committee would work closely with the architects to make sure "the needs and desires of the community are met as closely as possible," she said. The new school would still be part of Park County School District Re-2, she emphasized, but the district would work closely with area residents.
Larson Incitti Architects of Denver would be the likely pick for designing the new school because of its proven record with such facilities and its familiarity with the school district, Lewis said.
She hopes that if the grant is approved in May, construction could begin before the end of 2010. The new Lake George Charter School would probably open about two years later, she said, and the students would move into it as soon as possible.
The new school would be designed to complement the area's natural look. The BEST grant requires that the new school be much more energy- efficient. Instead of combined classrooms for first/second, third/fourth and fifth/sixth grades, the new school would have classrooms for each grade. The overall square footage would be only slightly larger because it's being designed for the same number of students, as required by the grant. But it won't be "disjointed," as the current school has grown to be over the years, Lewis said.
"The new one will have a better flow for the students and more realistic transitions between the classrooms and instructional areas," Lewis said. There will be a cafetorium, technology area and storage space for teachers.
Splitting up the classes means new teachers would be hired to run them. Lewis said that should help improve students' educations as their instructors have time to plan for smaller groups at the same learning level. "We could focus in on some supplemental instructional programming that we'd like to do now."
Greater energy efficiency would mean smaller bills, Lewis said, and thus money that could be directed toward benefiting the children in ways other than keeping them warm.
Getting the kids to the library is a challenge to be figured out. At the current location, Lake George Charter School is connected to the Lake George Public Library, a county facility that the students regularly visit. With the move of the school to a new building, the library would remain where it is.
"We'll have to be working out transportation arrangements because we still plan on using this library," Lewis said. "It's a nice library."
The school has no buses, so it may have to get a small vehicle to carry students to and from the library. Lewis hopes that eventually, as the student population grows, the school can work with the county to relocate the library to the new property. That's a long-term goal, she said.
What happens to the current school has yet to be determined, Lewis said, and it won't be figured out until after approval of the BEST grant. The grant will require that the current site either be returned to how it looked before there was a school, or be sold. Lewis said she hoped Park County would be interested in purchasing it.
For now, she's focused on moving forward with the new school, which will reflect, she said, "prioritizing the kids around here."
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