Cripple Creek-Victor Board Seeks Higher Tax for Upgrade to School
Posted on: Saturday, 27 August 2005, 03:01 CDT
DENVER - For the second year in a row, the Cripple Creek-Victor Board of Education is asking its residents to approve a tax increase to pay for an upgrade for the junior and senior high school.
Enrollment has doubled in 15 years, bringing the main school building near maximum capacity and what school board members describe as minimum efficiency.
The board agreed Tuesday to ask voters Nov. 1 to approve an estimated $12 million project that will update the school, build an early childhood education center and an auditorium.
The upgrade and education center will be paired as question 3A; the auditorium is planned as a separate issue and is contingent on approval of 3A.
Together, the projects would add up to $67 a year to the tax bill on a $150,000 home, according to members of a district building committee. The mining and gambling industries and owners of vacant land would shoulder about 80 percent of the costs, they said.
A similar proposal, including a gymnasium, failed in November 2004.
Preliminary results of a districtwide survey show that residents probably will support the junior and senior high school upgrade and education center. They're split on the idea of an auditorium, but most are adamantly against the gymnasium proposal. District building committee spokesman Ray Drake described community reaction to the gymnasium as hostile.
"For some reason, they've dug in their heels on the gymnasium and said, 'I will fight it,'" he said.
The current junior and senior high school, built in 1975, originally housed students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Enrollment then was around 285 students a year. Since 1990, when Colorado voters approved limited stakes gambling in Cripple Creek, it's almost doubled.
About half the students attend classes in the Cresson Elementary School, built in 1994. But parts of the original building were designed for young children.
"The restrooms are small," Superintendent Guy Arseneau said. "Classrooms are about 660 square feet. You need 900 square feet or better for high school kids."
Source: Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.
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