Durango School District 9-R released the plans to rebuild Miller Middle School. The bond language said they were going to rebuild Miller to address the educational needs of the students. Would you have voted for the bond if it would have stated 9-R would only address select students?
The plan is to displace Shared School, which operates within Miller. One hundred students and eight teachers at Shared School are losing out due to the passage of the bond. The new Miller won’t have adequate space for foreign language, music and performing arts. These are some of the problems that will occur due to the size of Miller being decreased from 120,000 to 80,000 square feet.
In 9-R’s haste to pass a tax, they failed to determine what they actually needed. The goal was to pass a tax, using the shallow argument that this tax won’t change property taxes. Now, they are at the point where they may need to ask for more money, after already receiving $24 million more than the $90 million they said they needed. 9-R also must find a place for the administration staff, since they sold the Administration Building to Durango Fire Protection District without a succession plan. Assuming 9-R is telling the truth and $120 million is not enough to complete the projects we thought we were voting for, they now must build a middle school that will immediately be too small, issue another bond or delay other projects.
John Simpson
Durango
