Twenty years ago, students in Bayfield, Colorado stopped using the old Bayfield High School because it was old, rundown and unfit for students. But for the past 10 years, the school – built in 1925 – has been the home to kindergarteners and first graders in the Bayfield School District. Thanks to Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) and the generosity of local residents, all that is about to change.
This week, students and teachers in La Plata County are breaking ground on a brand new school, the Bayfield Elementary Primary School.
When I served as Colorado’s State Treasurer, I saw communities across Colorado sending their kids to schools that were not fit to house them, just like in Bayfield. Students, especially in rural communities, were and still are attending schools with crumbling foundations, leaking roofs and old propane stoves for heat.
That is why I developed the BEST program that funded – and continues to help fund – the renovation and replacement of hundreds of dilapidated schools across Colorado. To date, the BEST program has made one billion dollars in improvements to 381 school buildings in 124 school districts across Colorado. And BEST was done with no new state taxes.
Because of this program, students in Bayfield will no longer have to use the old, once abandoned high school. They will join students in Weldona, Sargent, Center, Sangre De Cristo, Silverton, Salida and dozens of other communities who now have access to modern school facilities thanks to BEST.
This week, as the students in Bayfield put the first shovel in the ground, the students in Glenwood will watch new walls go up and the students in Debeque will get ready to walk into a new modern school building. We can celebrate the far-reaching success of this program and the benefits of working together to better our state.
For nearly a century, Colorado’s rural schools, spread across farmlands and mountains, deteriorated because small communities like Bayfield couldn’t raise the capital to renovate or replace them. I have visited many of these schools and I believe the state has a moral responsibility to ensure every student in our state has a modern, safe school. With the help of BEST, we are on our way to modernizing schools in communities across Colorado, including the Bayfield Elementary Primary School.
I want Colorado’s public schools to rank among the best in the country. Every student who grows up in Colorado should have the skills to compete for the jobs in Colorado’s growing economy. Providing a quality education for every student is the most important thing we do and should be our state’s highest priority.
Cary Kennedy is the former Colorado State Treasurer and is a candidate for governor. Reach her at cary@ck4gov.com.
