Parents, families and staff members raised concerns about the future of programming as the Lewis-Palmer District 38 school board looks into repair options for the Grace Best facility ahead of a pivotal upcoming school board vote this Tuesday.
The building itself has been a topic of conversation for years before the community meeting, held on Thursday. Initially, Grace Best was built in downtown Monument to be a high school, later turning into an elementary school. Now the facility only houses programming such as the Home School Enrichment Academy and Transition Services programs.
The enrichment academy program is designed to support families of homeschooled students in kindergarten through 12th grade across the city. Transition Services aids students with learning disabilities and their families think about work and life after high school and establish connections with adult agencies and services.
As the building, intially built in 1957, reaches nearly 70 years of use, ongoing damages have prompted the need for immediate solutions.
No action was taken at Thursday night's public meeting. On Tuesday, the D-38 board will vote to determine what the district will do regarding the Grace Best building.
"Tuesday is going to be critical to what does the future of the programming looks like," school board president Tiffiney Upchurch said. "But we also have to be mindful that we still are still stewards of taxpayer dollars."
Four options for a solution were presented Thursday: remediation and renovation at $18.4 million, a complete rebuild at $46 million, a complete demolition at $1.3 million, or only demolish everything built before the 1988 addition at $11.2 million, keeping the original building.
A fifth option was added during the meeting to answer the question, "what if we do nothing?" In that instance, the building would require ongoing maintenance and utility costs, causing the district to throw money at a building that is falling out of fire code compliance.
"It's about $250,000 for the typical utilities annually, mowing, minor repairs, system maintenance, because we still have to keep the heat on in that building," said Melissa Andrews, D-38's director of planning, facilities and grounds.
"If we do nothing, this cost to do something with it continues to increase with inflation, the cost of construction in future years, that's going to be another board's problem at some point in time," she said, adding that she did not see it as a realistic option.
The Monument Fire Department found five aspects of the building that did not meet the fire code during its most recent annual inspection, prompting the need for an immediate solution.
The report uncovered damaged fire-resistive walls and ceilings, accumulated combustible waste material such as cardboard throughout the building, improper storage heights and the unsuitable use of extension cords, among other things.
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The Fire Department did not finish its report, instead allowing the district to get remaining students out of the building within the next 12 months.
The Tribune Fire department gives 12-month timeline to D38 for Grace Best solutions By Benn Farrell The Tribune
Jonathan Bradley, Monument fire's division chief of community risk reduction, said the state adopted a new fire code that local operations must follow. The fire district is responsible for holding school district buildings to meet those standards.
"We keep getting further and further behind with the ability to meet the fire code as it progresses," Bradley said.
The room was packed with families, parents and district employees Thursday night. Most of the concern focused on the HSEA and Transition Services programs.
"Before we make a decision on a building, we need to make this decision on our programs, which are not just programs, they're people," said HSEA teacher Jill Robey. "We don't care what you do with the building. We really don't. We want to know that our kids, our students are taken care of."
There were several families in the audience who raised their hands to emphasize the benefits those programs bring to not only the district, but education as a whole. One family said they drive their children from D-11 in Colorado Springs to have access to programs at Grace Best.
Another major concern raised was the future of the gymnasium, which would be demolished if the board chose to tear down everything built prior to 1988. Several asked the board to be "mindful" of the benefits a gymnasium provides students.
Either during the construction of the 1980s addition or a roofing project that did not go as planned, the building started to leak at the conjunction of the original building and the addition, D-38 personnel said Thursday night.
"That gymnasium is beautiful, but the structural integrity of the building and that part of the building is not what we had hoped," Andrews said.
The damages were left for years while growing worse. In 2015, the Colorado Department of Education school assessment report on the facility found $8,899,250 worth of deficits.
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