- Kelley Cox/Post Independent
Education
Change is afoot for Roaring Fork School District Re-1. In November 2004 Garfield County voters approved an $86 million bond, and a $1.8 million mill levy override. The bond and override will allow RFSD to upgrade and renovate its 11 campuses in Carbondale, Glenwood Springs and Basalt and to attract and retain the best staff for its over 5,000 students.
RFSD is in the process of upgrading and expanding its elementary and middle schools while construction begins early this year on a new addition to Glenwood Springs High School and a new campus for Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale. Both schools are slated to be complete in 2007.
Carbondale Middle School will move into the old Roaring Fork High campus when the new high school opens.
In addition to traditional schools, Re-1 operates Bridges High School (an alternative high school in Glenwood) and the Carbondale Community School (a K-8 charter school).
Another change for the district this year will be a new superintendent who will replace retiring Superintendent Fred Wall after he leaves his post this summer. The district hopes to name a new superintendent by the end of March.
The Re in Re-1 stands for re-organized, which the district was in 1959 along with most other school districts in Colorado.
RFSD is one of three school districts serving Garfield County.
RFSD administrative offices are in Glenwood Springs at 1405 Grand Ave. Phone: 384-6000. The district is on the Web at
www.rfsd.k12.co.us.
Garfield County School District No. Re-2 serves families in New Castle, Silt and Rifle with four elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools.
But the district is growing. Coal Ridge High School, the newest addition to Re-2, opened in the fall of 2005 with approximately 250 freshmen and sophomores. The new school is located near Interstate 70 between Silt and New Castle. It will primarily draw from Riverside Middle School.
First- through fourth-grade students attend elementary school; fifth- through eighth-grade students go to middle school and high school students are in the ninth through 12th grades.
Garfield County School District No. 16 was founded in the early 1900s to govern all of the small rural schools in and around Parachute. Two of the schools in the district were The Book Cliffs School and Granlee, both built around 1895.
As the population dwindled between 1900 and 1910, schools in the areas surrounding Parachute consolidated with District 16.
The U.S. government and a government work project helped erect a new school during the Great Depression. The school has evolved and survived multiple remodels, expansions and changes in purpose. Today it is the Grand Valley Early Childhood Literacy Center.
Last year the districts growth steadily and swiftly increased. During 2006, the district witnessed the largest student population increase at approximately 10 percent in the three Garfield County school districts. The growth allowed for the district to hire an assistant superintendent, Ken Haptonstall, who started with the district before the 2007-08 school year.
Grand Valley High School opened in 2002 and is built to house 400 students. It can be expanded to hold 600.
In 2006 the district was awarded by voters a $35 million bond issue that will go toward construction upgrades. Ground was broken and construction began on the addition at the Early Childhood Literacy Center for the Center for Family Services facility. The district is also in the redesign stage of the districts Educational Service Support Center, which will house a transportation facility and welding stations for vocational programs. Improvements to Bea Underwood Elementary, reconstruction of L.W. St John Middle School into an elementary facility and construction of a new middle school building to replace St John will move forward during 2008 as well.
Colorado Mountain College is one of Garfield Countys greatest attributes.
The college offers everything from two-year degrees in photography or veterinary technology for serious students, to occupational certificates in real estate or EMT, to kayaking and French classes for folks who just like to learn.
CMC has community sites in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Rifle, in addition to a residential campus at Spring Valley, seven miles from Glenwood Springs. The college also has residential campuses in Leadville and Steamboat Springs, and five other community sites across the Western Slope, including Aspen and Edwards.
In the fall of 2007, a new West Garfield Campus replaced CMCs downtown Rifle facility.
CMCs science and liberal arts associate degrees are often used as a stepping-stone to transfer to four-year colleges and universities.
District office
1405 Grand Ave.
Glenwood Springs
Phone: 384-6000
Re-1 Board Members
President
Michael Bair
mbair@rfsd.k12.co.us 384-6000
Vice President
Bruce Wampler
bwampler@rfsd.k12.co.us 384-6000
Secretary
Brad Zeigel
bzeigel@rfsd.k12.co.us 384-6000
Treasurer
Bob Johnson
bjohnson@rfsd.k12.co.us 384-6000
Member
Susan Hakanson
shak@rfsd.k12.co.us384-6000
Basalt Schools
Basalt High School
Principal:
Jim Waddick
600 Southside Drive
Basalt, CO 81621
Phone: 384-5959
Re-1: continued on next page
Basalt Middle School
Principal:
Christian Kingsbury
51 School St.
Basalt, CO 81621
Phone: 384-5900
Basalt Elementary School
Principal:
Suzanne Wheeler-Del Piccolo
151 E. Cottonwood Drive
Basalt, CO 81621
Phone: 384-5800
More Schools page 35
Carbondale Schools:
Roaring Fork High School
Principal: Dale Parker
180 Snowmass Drive
Carbondale, CO 81623
Phone: 384-5757
Carbondale Middle School
Principal: Cliff Colia
455 South 3rd Street
Carbondale, CO 81623
Phone: 384-5700
Crystal River Elementary School
Principals: Karen Olsen
600 South 3rd Street and 160 Snowmass Drive
Carbondale, CO 81623
Phone: 384-5650
Carbondale Community School
Principal: Leslie Emerson
1505 Satank Road
Carbondale, CO 81623
Phone: 963-9647
Glenwood Springs Schools:
Glenwood Springs High School
Principal: Paul Freeman
1340 Pitkin Avenue
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone: 384-5555
Bridges High School
Principal: Lyn Bair
504 W. 27th St.
Glenwood Springs, Colorado 81601
Phone: 384-5995
Glenwood Springs Middle School
Principal: Robert Farris
120 Soccer Field Road
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone: 384-5500
Glenwood Springs Elementary School
Principal: Sony Hemmen
916 School Street
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone: 384-5450
Sopris Elementary School
Principal: Howard Jay
1150 Mt. Sopris Drive
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
Phone: 384-5400
Administration
251 N. Parachute Ave.
Parachute, CO 81635
(970) 285-5701
(970) 285-5711 FAX
Superintendent
Dr. Steven A. McKee
Secretary to
Superintendent
Marilyn
Mondragon-Garcia
Director of Business Services
Rose Belden
Receptionist and
Curriculum Secretary
Kim Bowen
Accounts Payable and Safety Coordinator
Sherrie Hoffman
Human Services
Naomi Johnson
Curriculum
Coordinator
Rhonda Dillon
Maintenance
Damon Culver
Vicki Robinson
Technology
Les McKinley
Brian Jarrett
Transportation
Linda Cannizzaro
Public Relations
Sandy Hanson
Board of Education
Dani Christensen, president
Ron Palmer, vice
president
Mary Moore, secretary
Jody Williams,
secretary
Amy Beasley, treasurer
Wayne Wolcheck, director
Grand Valley Early Childhood
Literacy Center
principal: Corey Doss
100 E. Second St.
Parachute, CO 81635
(970) 285-5702
(970) 285-5712 Fax
Bea Underwood
Elementary School
principal: Corey Doss
0741 Tamarisk Trail
Parachute, CO 81635
(970) 285.5703
(970) 285-5713 Fax
St John Middle School
principal: Scott Pankow
0460 Stone Quarry Road
Parachute, CO 81635
(970) 285-5704
(970) 285-5714 Fax
Grand Valley High School
principal: Larry Brady
800 Cardinal Way
Parachute, CO 81635
(970) 285-5705
Carbondale
690 Colorado Ave.
Carbondale, CO 81623
963-2172
Glenwood Center
1402 Blake Ave.
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
945-7486
Spring Valley
3000 County Road 114
Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
945-7481
Rifle Campus
703 Railroad Ave.
Rifle, CO 81650
625-1871