D60 Board votes to close Heroes Academy; Minnequa staying open

After months of speculation, the first school to close in Pueblo City School District was decided Tuesday night.

District 60 School Board members voted to close Heroes Academy K-8 while keeping Minnequa Elementary School open next year.

Pueblo city district officials say Heroes Academy K-8 was facing many issues. However, the largest was the cost of maintenance fees, a big reason why the board voted to close the school.

Heroes Academy’s electrical systme unexpectedly failed more than a month ago, which would cost the district $1.6 million dollars to fix. The district would have to go into the emergency fund in order to pay to repair it.

According to the recent MOA Architect report of D60’s building, there are more than $30 million worth of priority repairs at Heroes Acaemy in order to keep the school operational.

The distrcit say it will continue working the transition phase for Heroes Academy familes, students, and educators effected by the decision.

A majority of elementary students are expected to be transfered to Irving Elementary with a smaller portion going to Morton Elementary. As for the middle school students, a majority would go to Risley International with a portion going to Heation Middle school.

As for the educators, district officials say they will need teachers at other schools, and would work on transfering them to other schools on a case by case basis.

District 60 held two public forums at Heroes Academy and Minnequa Elementary before coming to their decision.

“This decision (to keep Minnequa Elementary open) speaks to level of leadership we have here. We aren’t just going through motions we are going out and hearing from the public,” said Pueblo City Schools spokesperson Dalton Sprouse. “Taking that information into consideration as well as other aspects of information. We want to take the best possible decision to benefit the most students as possible.”

Thursday night, Minnequa Elementary parents and educators came out in full force in support of their school.

“No, I can’t imagine Minnequa closing down,” said Minnequa parent Rachella Martinez. “We don’t know where our kids will be comfortable at. We know they are comfortable here.”

For Martinez and her family, Minnequa Elementary closing would make things a lot more difficult.

“We don’t have a car right now,” said Martinez. “We walk them to school every morning we pick them up every evening. It’s a short distance right now from here to home and being somewhere else would be a longer distance.”

“We are at 91% capacity as of now and we have no emergency needs at all,” said Shannan Lane, an educator at Minnequa elementary. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Lane understands the board will have to make some tough choices in the near future. However, she just hopes the school board thinks this decision through.

“There is nothing to lose with saying we can wait a year or two years with Minnequa cause there are no funds they need to spend to keep the school open,” pointed out Lane. “If they are needing to do this slowly. They can move slowly with this school.”

When it comes to state test scores, Minnequa Elementary spent three straight years in the lowest category of ‘turnaround’. However, this past year, the school rose to ‘priority improvement’.

Thursday night, multiple public commenters pointed out the Pueblo City School board that the state board requested that Minnequa elementary ought to stay open.

The Pueblo school district has suggested that if decide to close Minnequa close. They would transition the building into a preschool.

The Pueblo city school board declined to comment on this story before they vote.