About a hundred people attended a meeting in Crawford on Monday evening, February 17th, to discuss a Delta County School Board proposal to merge the Montessori School at Crawford with Paonia’s North Fork School of Integrated Studies, a Waldorf inspired school. The proposal, which is meant to cut operational costs, comes as the School Board anticipates a shortfall in funding if the State changes the way resources are allocated to public schools.
One of the organizers of the community meeting, Sara Taylor, has a second grader at the Crawford School. She talked about how the proposal was presented to parents, in a letter dated January 27th.
“We all got that letter and kind of went into an uproar,” said Taylor. “They said in that initial letter that they were possibly going to vote on Feb 27th, which is two days after the community meeting that they’re presenting stuff in next week. We’ve pushed back a lot and the board and Superintendent have been very responsive. And so they have now said they are not voting on the 27th — we don’t know when they’re going to vote. But they are also now looking at all of the options, which wasn’t clear when they sent out the letter."
Options other than moving one of the schools include keeping both campuses as is for now, and taking a year to evaluate the situation. There is also a chance that the budget cuts will not be as dire as predicted; but that will not be known until April.
People at the meeting noted that the Montessori School will actually have a slight increase enrollment next year, and that it is the only public school in Crawford. Many planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting on February 25th at 5:30 at North Fork High School to ask questions, and voice concerns to the Board of Education and Superintendent.. They also talked about contacting state legislators and Governor Jared Polis; as well as other community members.
Crawford Town Council member Gill Saunders summed up the predominant sentiment at the meeting, saying, “A school is as important to a community as a church, or a grocery store, or a post office, or anything else.” Other chimed in with “library” and “gas station,” and someone said, “Amen.”
