Pueblo voters discuss future of high schools, 4 old or 2 new?
Pueblo City School board members say that if they don’t pass a bond soon, school closures for schools like Pueblo East and Centennial would be inevitable. This all stems from the MOA Architecture report stating that priority maintenance costs for the Pueblo schools would cost millions of dollars.
In the coming weeks, school board members are expected to survey voters on two potential bond options.
One would keep all four high schools open and pay for a new building for Pueblo East High School.
The other option would get rid of the four existing high schools and build two brand new ones.
KRDO spoke with graduates of the Pueblo high schools and voters to see which bond they would prefer to see on the ballots come November.
Every person that spoke with our reporters wanted all four high schools to remain, but for different reasons. Some people fear losing the high schools means losing Pueblo’s identity.
“We’ve talked a lot about financial costs and fiscal costs, but what about the social costs?” asked Vince Guerrero, a Pueblo Central Alum. “Pulling those schools out is not a good plan.”
Others, like Pueblo Centennial Alum Georgina Kelly, say the high schools are a part of their heritage.
“My family has all been part of Centennial,” said Kelly. “From my mother through our grandchildren. It’s tradition and I like that.”
Nothing says tradition like the Bell or Cannon football games. It’s fear of losing those and the potential impacts to athletics that’s turning some away from the two-school plan.
“Athletically, it would be difficult if we had those big schools to compete with the bigger schools in the Denver area,” pointed out Rich Riesner, a Pueblo South High School alum and teacher.
Despite this, some high school students in Pueblo believe it may be time to set new traditions with two schools. KRDO spoke with a handful of students earlier this month when they were asked to look over some of the bond options and District 60 community forum.
“[Two options] kind of shakes up Pueblo,” said Maya Maes-Johnson, a Pueblo Centennial junior. “I think we’ve been stuck in the same set of ways for so long that I think some innovation for our students is exactly what this community needs.”
For the people we spoke to, this line of thinking from students comes as no surprise.
“It’s the alumni and the old people like us who want to keep four schools,” said John Kelly, a Centennial Alum. “People going to school now, I don’t think they really care [about the tradition.]”
No matter which bond option is put on the November ballots, it won’t come cheap.
Every person who spoke to KRDO agreed that the schools desperately need upgrades, but some don’t want to throw away the four schools so quickly.
Tuesday night at the school board meeting, board members are expected to meet with a consulting group to discuss surveying voters and their bond options.
