There has never been a first day of school in Pueblo like what awaits for school year 2023-24. Next week, August 15th to be exact, in addition to the city’s legacy schools, five brand new schools will be opening their doors! Thanks to a successful school bond election, the city was able to build a pair of new high schools, two new elementary schools and one K-8 school.
In 2019, Pueblo voters approved a $218 million bond issue to improve infrastructure in a number of schools and add five completely new buildings. Pueblo East and Pueblo Centennial will be home to the Class of ’24 and beyond. Franklin School of Innovation and Sunset Park Elementary will serve as the city’s newest elementary schools and Freed Expeditionary K-8 School will also open.
Rather than invest in upgrading the two new high schools, the city determined that it would be a wiser economic move to simply replace them. For Sunset Park Elementary and Franklin schools, replacement is long overdue.
Sunset Park, named for the community it serves, and Franklin, the first school built in the city’s Belmont community, were built in the 1950s when Pueblo’s steel mill was chugging and growth was non-stop. Modern by fifties-era standards, the schools today are relics in almost every way.
“The old building was created before computers,” said Sunset Park’s principal, John Hull. Of course, back then any ideas about computers for most people came from science fiction movies or pulp fiction novels. “Now all kids,” said Hull, “have computer technology.” The new school will be as state-of-the-art as any school in Colorado.
But it’s not just technology for learning that is going to make new Sunset better for its students, said Hull. The new building will have air conditioning, a missing variable that Hull said compromised a positive learning environment. “We’re excited,” said the veteran school principal who has been at Sunset’s helm for twenty years. “Having comfortable teaching and learning environments,” Hull beamed, “it’s night and day!”
Hull, as much as any teacher or student who’s passed through Sunset Park, is familiar with the impact late August or September Pueblo heat can have on the energy levels of young bodies, teachers, too. Late summer heat that can reach near triple-digits was just a painful cost of doing business. Regrettably, he lamented, when the ‘business’ is teaching and learning, the product suffers.
While excited that Pueblo’s new additions are now part of the city’s education stable, Ted Johnson, the district’s Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, is facing the same challenges almost all of Colorado’s public schools are facing.
An immediate challenge is bouncing back from the dip in test scores caused by the pandemic. Johnson said Pueblo took a hit like the rest of the country’s schools, but it wasn’t nearly as severe as many districts. He also said, the city is bouncing back sooner than many districts, as well. But there is still work to do.
Another blow—economic and Covid-related—is staffing. “We are still continuing to work to hire teachers,” he said. When school begins, Johnson says, teacher-student ratios will not be where he would like them to be. “We would like a few more teachers.”
To fill the gaps, Johnson said the district is doing everything it can, including bringing in retired teachers. But he knows that’s only a temporary fix. There are limits to how long a retired teacher can staff a classroom.
What might fix the shortage, he said, is higher salaries. “It’s a big issue everywhere.” Johnson says Pueblo District 60 offers “a fairly competitive salary for our region,” but districts “north of Colorado Springs offer more.” District 60 teachers recently won a 12 percent pay increase.
But those considering teaching, he thinks, ought to consider Pueblo for other reasons, too. While it may not be able to match the higher pay that larger cities may offer, he suggests teaching candidates consider “quality of life and cost of living,” things that Pueblo offers.
All students will have whatever tools, including computers, they will need to begin the school year, said Johnson. Local businesses and community organizations have also chipped in by providing backpacks and other essentials, including uniforms for those schools that require them.
The two new high schools will give students something their parents and grandparents might never have envisioned when they attended. Both schools will have laser printers in the career and technical ed programs. Each will also have modern kitchens for their culinary arts programs and there will also be nursing classrooms that will replicate real world medical environments. Auditoriums will also be dual purpose and able to convert into lecture halls.
Pueblo East and Pueblo Centennial will continue as Eagles and Bulldogs. Sunset Park will remain as the Yearlings but Freed Expeditionary will have a brand new— but unforgettable—mascot: The Yeti. Franklin was and will continue to be ‘The Bobcats.’
