Students, Alumni protest potential Pueblo East H.S. closure

Talks of school closures and consolidation at Pueblo City Schools has led to protests outside of a district meeting Thursday afternoon.

Pueblo East High School is under the microscope after a recent infrastructure study says the 60-year-old school needs to be closed or replaced.

Around 3:30 p.m., more than 100 students, parents, and alumni of Pueblo East High School came to the District 60 building with the goal of letting the district know Pueblo East was more than just a school.

“When we want something done we have to take initiative and do that,” said rally organizer Caitlin Johnston, a Junior at Pueblo East. The rally was also organized by Pueblo East Boosters.

According to a report from an architecture firm out of Denver, MOA Architecture, Pueblo East High School is the worst school in the entire district when it comes to its deteriorating infrastructure.

This comes after a complete review of the entire school district’s buildings. The review says there is around $300 million dollars worth of priority 1 and 2 problems at all the schools.

The building Pueblo East currently inhabits is 60-years-old, and the report says the school district cannot salvage it.

“It’s very scary because being apart of the east eagle empire legacy is very important to us the students the staff and so we really want to make sure we continue that district,” said Johnston.

Inside the district building, while the rally commenced more than 70 parents, students, and school officials came together for a community stakeholder meeting. Here they looked over 17 different plans to deal with the priority problems throughout the district, presented by MOA Architecture.

“Here we want to know what important to the community,” said Jack Mousseau of MOA Architecture. “What criteria do they carry to make decisions. This will help us make decisions based on our master plan.”

The district hopes to narrow down these options by late March.

Each plan is different, some keep all 4 high schools, some 3, some just 2.

Certain plans require closing middle schools and moving the students to underutilized high schools like Pueblo Central High School.

However, all of the options require bonds.

Schools like Pueblo East High School and Pueblo Centennial High School would at the very least need to be replaced with brand new buildings. If that were to happen and the school was closed for good, that wouldn’t happen for at least another three years.

District officials say they did not have a preference when it comes to any of the options. Each option provided by MOA Architecture is modifiable.

The district says it plans on getting considerable public feedback via emails and more public forums in the future. In order to narrow down the options, they need to hear back from the public.

You can find the full breakdown of the 17 plans at Pueblo City Schools’ website.

As for the rally, the district released a statement shortly after it started:

“We appreciate the commitment and passion we all share for our high schools and we hope our community will continue to be a part of our process as we work collaboratively to make the schools in Pueblo the best they can be. We are very mindful of Pueblo’s rich history and traditions. We also know that we must set an ambitious timeline if we are to put a bond measure on the November ballot. Our timeline is flexible enough and allows for members of the community and staff to fully understand the options, provide input and work collaboratively toward a plan that meets the future needs of our community,” said Dalton Sprouse, Pueblo City Schools Communications Director.

“We really want to make sure that they see that we aren’t just going to let them shut down our schools,” said Johnston. “This is our community and we want to make sure it’s protected.”