Summertime is a chance for school districts to make much needed renovations to campuses, and Durango School District 9-R is doing just that this summer by spending millions to upgrade infrastructure that hasn’t received any attention for decades.
The school district is spending about $10 million on projects this summer using 4A bond money, which voters passed in 2020 to help fund infrastructure upgrades across the district, including two charter schools.
Much of that funding has gone toward HVAC upgrades at Riverview Elementary School, Durango High School and Escalante Middle School. Fort Lewis Mesa and Florida Mesa elementary schools are receiving new security vestibules.
The vestibule projects began in 2022 as a way to better keep 9-R campuses safe. The final vestibule project is slated for Riverview Elementary School in summer 2025. Many of the school’s electrical and HVAC systems haven’t been replaced in decades. Some equipment dates back to the 1970s, said district Facilities Director Jonathan Morgan.
“We’re replacing 20 to 30 fan coils in the building (at DHS),” he said.
At Riverview, district maintenance staff members have struggled with leaky roofs as a result of worn down asphalt roofing panels that have cracked and become displaced.
Morgan said asphalt is becoming an outdated material for commercial roofing; instead, rubber or plastic panels are more commonly used. He said the district has tackled about $2.5 million worth of leaking roof repairs in the last year.
The district is also making updates to its wheelchair ramps at DHS to ensure they are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
He said a compliance check a few years ago revealed the ramps’ height need to be adjusted slightly to meet code. The district also renovated some bathrooms to ensure they had a 60-by-56 inch mandated stall size for wheelchair use.
Two of the larger upgrades included a new dust-collection system for DHS’s wood shop class and new additions to the welding class.
Morgan said the dust-collection system had become outdated and is a necessity for the class. A dust-collection system is a vacuum or fan that draws in dust from various sources, such as sanders, routers and table saws.
The dust is then transported through a network of ducts and filters, trapping the fine particles before releasing clean air back into the workspace.
The high school’s welding class will include nine new work stations as a result of the summer renovations. Each work station will have its own welding fume extraction system.
“You just move it around to wherever you’re working and it sucks the welding fumes away,” Morgan said.
Building career pathways and adding emphasis on work-based learning experiences has been a priority for the district when using the bond money.
The goal of the renovations is to mimic the workplace environment field students will be entering.
The school district also finished two significant non-bond funded upgrades this summer. DHS, Impact Career Innovation Center, Park Elementary School and Animas Valley Elementary School had rooftop solar panels installed via the district’s partnership with Veregy.
DHS will also start the school year with a new broadcast room for its journalism program as part of a district capital project.
In February, the district announced its intention to move toward solar energy – a move that will be more cost-effective long-term, said Chief Operations Officer Chris Coleman.
The district invested $7.2 million to cover the full scope of solar installs, ventilation work and LED lighting at several schools. Coleman said ventilation and LED lighting projects are almost complete.
The district predicts the total investment, including LED lighting and ventilation upgrades, will save millions of dollars in utility costs over the next 20 years. Coleman said the investment completely pays for itself.
DHS’s broadcast journalism program is one of the career pathways students can enter through the school’s career in technical education program.
District spokeswoman Karla Sluis said there wasn’t space for the broadcast room at the Impact Career Innovation Center, and so the district renovated the old photography classroom at the southwest corner of the school.
Durango school district has taken steps to improve its Career in Technical Education curriculum. Over the last three years, the district’s CTE program has grown to 14 career pathways.
“Jacobs has done a fantastic job of managing the budgets and so we do have some additional moneys that they’ve saved on a lot of the projects that are completed,” Morgan said.
So far, the district has spent $8 million less on bond projects than expected. The money is being reallocated to renovating rooftops and elevators within district buildings.
The district also continues to inch closer to opening its new Miller Middle School building. It has yet to be determined whether a June 16 fire at the new school’s construction site will delay the building’s opening. The structure was supposed to be ready for use by the time fall semester starts on Aug. 20.
The new school building is part of a $45 million bond project that includes an elevated bridge linking the new portion of the school to the older portion of the school. It will also include the demolition of the school’s west wing where a new football field will be built.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
