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Glade Park may not have enough children to prompt Mesa County Valley School District 51 to build a school there, one school district official said this weekend, but its residents have the heart to make the school a reality.
The small town behind Colorado National Monument hasn’t had a school since 1971. But 70 people, mostly locals, gathered Saturday morning at a town meeting on Glade Park to discuss with school district officials the possibility of creating a new community school there.
“If we look at demographics alone, this would not be a good place to put a school,” Assistant Superintendent Steve Schultz said at the meeting. But the town has enough community support to help make the school a reality, he continued.
With about a half-million dollars expected to go into start-up costs alone, most parents aren’t expecting the school district to pay for everything. In a survey, about half of those attending the meeting said Glade Park residents should partner with the school district and provide land or cover some school-related costs. Most said the town should offer some assistance.
Glade Park resident Karyn Bechtel said the school district should provide money for school staff, but her heart is in giving the district any help it needs to get the school started.
Bechtel said she and her husband, Adam, were “ecstatic” to hear a school might be built on Glade Park. She said commuting to school was the only concern she and her husband had when the couple recently moved to Glade Park from California with their two children, ages 2 and 4.
The school would start with kindergarten through second grades, then add a grade level each year until it had kindergarten through fifth grades. Hands-on learning would be a large part of the curriculum, said Tree Humbert, member of a three-person Glade Park community school committee.
“The curriculum would abide by all the Colorado state standards the District 51 schools use. The difference would be the approach ... connecting it to more of the real world,” Humbert said.
The concept may attract more than 30 Glade Park children expected to attend the school. Sarah Shrader of Grand Junction said she’d also like her three children to attend the school.
“We’re looking for a more progressive education than what’s offered in the valley,” Shrader said after Saturday’s meeting. “We are so excited about this. If this happens, we’ll make the drive every day.”
Humbert and fellow committee members have suggested a fall 2008 opening for the school, but Schultz and school board members Leslie Kiesler and Ron Rowley, who attended the meeting, said a few more details have to be worked out before a date can be set. For example, land has not been purchased for the school, and what type of building or set-up would house the school has yet to be decided. The school could temporarily consist of modulars or start a few years from now with a building.
“Ideally, we’d all like to see something open this fall. I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but it might not happen,” Kiesler said.
Taking two to three years to build a school that reflects the hands-on learning the school wants to incorporate into its curriculum would be ideal, Bechtel said.
“I don’t think you can do that overnight,” she said.
School district officials and board members will discuss Saturday’s meeting and use citizen comments to help determine how much involvement they want to throw into making the school a reality, Schultz said. Without district support, the school could still advance as a charter school.
Meanwhile, the Glade Park school committee will continue to look at land where the school would go. The committee is scouting property in a central part of the town, members said.
For more information about the proposed school, visit www.gladeparkschool.com.
Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.
The small town behind Colorado National Monument hasn’t had a school since 1971. But 70 people, mostly locals, gathered Saturday morning at a town meeting on Glade Park to discuss with school district officials the possibility of creating a new community school there.
“If we look at demographics alone, this would not be a good place to put a school,” Assistant Superintendent Steve Schultz said at the meeting. But the town has enough community support to help make the school a reality, he continued.
With about a half-million dollars expected to go into start-up costs alone, most parents aren’t expecting the school district to pay for everything. In a survey, about half of those attending the meeting said Glade Park residents should partner with the school district and provide land or cover some school-related costs. Most said the town should offer some assistance.
Glade Park resident Karyn Bechtel said the school district should provide money for school staff, but her heart is in giving the district any help it needs to get the school started.
Bechtel said she and her husband, Adam, were “ecstatic” to hear a school might be built on Glade Park. She said commuting to school was the only concern she and her husband had when the couple recently moved to Glade Park from California with their two children, ages 2 and 4.
The school would start with kindergarten through second grades, then add a grade level each year until it had kindergarten through fifth grades. Hands-on learning would be a large part of the curriculum, said Tree Humbert, member of a three-person Glade Park community school committee.
“The curriculum would abide by all the Colorado state standards the District 51 schools use. The difference would be the approach ... connecting it to more of the real world,” Humbert said.
The concept may attract more than 30 Glade Park children expected to attend the school. Sarah Shrader of Grand Junction said she’d also like her three children to attend the school.
“We’re looking for a more progressive education than what’s offered in the valley,” Shrader said after Saturday’s meeting. “We are so excited about this. If this happens, we’ll make the drive every day.”
Humbert and fellow committee members have suggested a fall 2008 opening for the school, but Schultz and school board members Leslie Kiesler and Ron Rowley, who attended the meeting, said a few more details have to be worked out before a date can be set. For example, land has not been purchased for the school, and what type of building or set-up would house the school has yet to be decided. The school could temporarily consist of modulars or start a few years from now with a building.
“Ideally, we’d all like to see something open this fall. I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but it might not happen,” Kiesler said.
Taking two to three years to build a school that reflects the hands-on learning the school wants to incorporate into its curriculum would be ideal, Bechtel said.
“I don’t think you can do that overnight,” she said.
School district officials and board members will discuss Saturday’s meeting and use citizen comments to help determine how much involvement they want to throw into making the school a reality, Schultz said. Without district support, the school could still advance as a charter school.
Meanwhile, the Glade Park school committee will continue to look at land where the school would go. The committee is scouting property in a central part of the town, members said.
For more information about the proposed school, visit www.gladeparkschool.com.
Reach Emily Anderson at eanderson@gjfreepress.com.
