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Bayfield High to resurface track this summer

School board discusses grants, task force for gifted education

Hoping to avoid the fate of Durango High School, which can’t use its track this year because it’s falling apart, Bayfield school board members approved a contract April 5 to resurface the track inside Wolverine Country Stadium.

The board unanimously approved an $85,500 contract with Renner Sports of Denver. Work should take place this summer.

Completely removing and replacing the 17-year-old track would cost about $250,000, said Rob Dean, BHS athletics and facilities director. While resurfacing it now will last about 10 years, the district will need to consider a complete replacement in the future, he advised.

Board members also discussed state-mandated testing, which is taking place throughout the district.

Board member Carol Blatnick was dismayed that parents of 44 out of 85 juniors at BHS allowed their students to opt out of the state tests.

Parents across the country, especially those of high school students, are saying “enough” to testing, said Superintendent Troy Zabel.

“We’ve gone overboard with accountability,” in past years, he said. Only a handful of students are being opted out at Bayfield Elementary School and Bayfield Middle School, he added.

The district also convened a task force to study gifted and talented education in the district. At last month’s school board meeting, some BMS parents said their children weren’t being challenged by online programming and couldn’t get responses back from teachers in online programs, sometimes for days.

The task force will meet May 3 and work through the next school year, Zabel said.

The board received some good news as well. The district received a $40,000 Colorado Department of Education grant, which Zabel called “phenomenal.” The grant will be used for diagnostics to increase teacher effectiveness and student achievement. The district awarded the grant funding to Generation Schools Network in Denver.



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