What to know about Pueblo D60 school buildings 5 years after $218 million bond

The almost 60-year-old Roncalli STEM Academy building, 4202 W. State Highway 78, is far from the oldest school facility in Pueblo School District 60 but it is the latest to reach the end of its life span.

School closures and subsequent demolitions are realities faced by school districts across the nation. Over 15,000 public schools were closed in the U.S. between the 2010-11 and 2021-22 academic years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The average U.S. public school’s main building is about 49 years old, according to a February 2024 report by NCES. Excluding charter schools, nearly two-thirds of Pueblo D60’s school buildings are over 56 years of age.

While a majority of its schools remain standing at older ages than the national average, the district has engaged in its fair share of recent closing, demolition and rebuilding activity.

“We typically have closed schools over the past five years when a catastrophic failure has occurred, such as electrical, HVAC or other major infrastructure failure that the District does not have the funds available to repair,” Pueblo D60 facilities director Bob Lawson told the Chieftain in an email.

The "catastrophic failure" that forced Roncalli's closure was an issue with its HVAC system. This past winter, HVAC piping throughout the school leaked over 1,000 gallons of the anti-freeze glycol and eventually got to the point of leaking about 700 gallons of water per day.

On April 18, members of the Pueblo D60 Board of Education voted 3-2 to close Roncalli at the end of the 2023-24 school year. The vote was taken a month after Lawson reported the HVAC issues at a March 18 board meeting and revealed that costs to renovate Roncalli were estimated to be above $38 million.

At a May 14 board meeting, Lawson, Chief Financial Officer David Horner and Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso recommended that the district demolish Roncalli following its closure and retain the land at 4202 W. State Highway 78 for a future school building. The Board of Education voted to approve the recommendation.

"This is the same recommendation model that was approved for the former Freed Middle School site," Lawson told the board. "The rationale for this recommendation is based on the need for a school site in the southwest part of Pueblo within the not too distant future as the El Camino and Southgate areas continue to grow as planned."

How many schools has Pueblo D60 closed in the past 5 years?

Roncalli is slated to be the second Pueblo D60 school building since 2020 to close without a replacement. The Pueblo D60 board approved the emergency closure of Carlile Elementary in 2021 after contractors found significant HVAC system and roof damage at the 1930s-built, Mission Revival school building.

Both schools, along with Bradford Elementary, were recommended for closure in Pueblo D60's 2018 Facilities Master Plan due to enrollment projections, facilities assessments and repair cost estimates, according to previous Chieftain reporting.

However, Lawson recommended in February 2020 that the closure of the three schools be "deferred for the time being," citing high enrollment at Bradford and Roncalli and academic success at Carlile, among other factors. As of May 2024, Bradford Elementary continues its operations on the Lower East Side at 107 S. LaCross Avenue.

Since 2020, Pueblo D60 has also said goodbye to old Centennial High School, East High School, Franklin School of Innovation and Sunset Park Elementary buildings and built replacements for the 2023-24 school year. Those replacements were largely made possible through a $218 million bond passed by voters in 2019.

The new Franklin and Sunset Park schools also benefited from $32 million in Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grants awarded to Pueblo D60 by the Colorado Department of Education in fiscal year 2021-22.

In addition to the new Centennial, East, Franklin and Sunset Park schools, bond funds also financed the $1 million demolition of Heroes K-8 Academy in 2020 and the $38 million construction of the Nettie S. Freed K-8 Expeditionary School at the same site, 715 W. 20th Street.

The short-lived Heroes K-8 Academy closed in 2019 following the failure of its electrical system. Before becoming the Heroes K-8 Academy in 2017, the brick building on 20th Street was Freed Middle School — a feeder middle school for Centennial High School.

2018 Master Plan warned 14 schools would be in 'critical' condition by 2023. What's the status of these schools today?

A Facilities Condition Index (FCI) score is a benchmark representing the ratio of repair costs to the costs of a building replacement. Buildings with an FCI of 51% or greater may be considered for closure or replacement, according to Pueblo D60's 2018 Facilities Master Plan.

Fourteen schools had an FCI score above 51% in 2018. With scores between 52% and 62%, each of them was considered to be in "very poor" condition, though none of them were found to have a "critical" score of 65%. However, all 14 schools were projected to be in need of immediate repairs by 2023, according to the master plan.

Four of the 14 schools — Centennial, East, Franklin and Sunset Park— have since been demolished and replaced by new schools. While not getting new school buildings, nine additional schools with FCI scores above 51% received significant repairs through the same $218 million bond that built the four replacement schools.

Schools to receive bond repairs included Belmont Elementary, Beulah Heights Elementary, Central High School, Heaton Middle School, Highland Park, Minnequa Elementary School, Pueblo Arts Academy, South High School and South Park Elementary.

While the $218 million bond helped build five total schools and repair nine others, Roncalli was the only school with an FCI score above 51% in 2018 to not receive a new school or repairs. Roncalli had an FCI score of 62%, which was tied for the highest FCI in the district with the now-demolished and rebuilt East High School.

Conditions have been improved in several schools within Pueblo D60 thanks to the 2019 bond. However, it is "likely," but "somewhat unknown" if any schools within Pueblo D60 are currently in critical condition, Lawson said.

"Anything can abruptly fail in 50-year-old buildings," Lawson said. "(The Colorado Department of Education) has recently started another facilities assessment of all D60 schools. It may be another year or more before we receive those results and reports."

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo D60 outlines facilities needs following closure of Roncalli