At their Monday night board meeting, the Dolores RE-4A school board heard presentations from the CTE program and operation graduation, as well as discussing the district’s bond resolution.
At the start of the meeting, middle school and high school agriculture teacher Allison Brown spoke of the CTE program, providing insights and information on the program’s welding, agriculture, woodworking, business and audio production programs. The business department and audio production are new programs this year.
She also mentioned the food science class, which teaches students serve-safe standards and allows students to “walk into any restaurant” and start at “manager level.” The board and Brown also discussed future goals for these programs.
The board expressed their excitement over the report, saying that the growth in these programs was something to be proud of.
The board also addressed their bond resolution now that they have been selected for the BEST Grant. This grant will allow the district to build their new high school and renovate their new middle school.
Voters in the district passed the bond question in 2023, which will soon go into effect now that the BEST Grant has been acquired. The district also had a mill levy override pass in November.
During their discussion, the board was informed that their bond can’t be more than $11.2 million, but also cannot exceed the Colorado school debt limit.
The board said they would work on how best to track their budget for the new school and stay on top of the budget, noting that the BEST board will help keep the budget on track through periodic checks.
The next item was from operation graduation, which was presented by the group’s secretary Staci Cost. Cost asked the board for a donation to operation graduation’s celebration that is being planned for this year’s graduates. The board said that the donation will be added to action items for the February meeting.
The National Honor Society is planning a trip to allow students to tour colleges they are interested in.
In action items, the board approved new hires, among other items. They approved the hiring of Brady Hoffman and Kara Prorok as substitutes, Kenia Reina and Aidan Pym as preschool substitutes, Cheri Walker as the girls’s golf coach and Breyer Betts as custodian.
The next Dolores board meeting will take place on Monday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.