B.E.S.T. program begins saving rural districts

ALAMOSA - Charlie Jackson walks around to the school buildings and sees the same problems over and over again, because the district never had enough money to address those problems - until now.

"I think all of us have the same issues that we're sitting there with limited funding with maintenance projects that keep backing up," Jackson said.

Jackson is the director of maintenance for the Alamosa School District. He says the district has needed new buildings for decades, but because its lower population, it cannot generate enough tax dollars.

"Our budget is $12 million a year, and we still have to educate kids," Jackson said.

He says Alamosa Schools have repair needs that total closer to $40 million as buildings approach 100 years of service.

At Polmost Primary, students and teachers have dealt with at least 60 roof leaks within the past year.

"We end up patching and patching and patching," Jackson said.

Polmost is also overcrowded. Alamosa Superintendent Robert Alejo says its small kitchen and small common areas put a strain on the student body. Right now, about one-third of all the students at Polmost must attend class in modular buildings outside dubbed "trailer row."

"We've literally had to cut office space, closet space, classroom space," Alejo said. "We've spliced. We've diced. I don't think there's much more we can do to this building."

State Treasurer Cary Kennedy and other leaders worked to change that. They created the B.E.S.T. Program or Building Excellent Schools Today.

"B.E.S.T. allows the state to partner with those small rural school districts to give them the access to the capital that they need," Kennedy said.

B.E.S.T. utilizes the School Land Trust. When Colorado became a state, the federal government donated millions of acres of land to be used solely to support K-12 schools. Farmers, oil companies, businesses use these lands and pay rent or mining fees to the state each year.

The revenue generated has grown to about $90 million per year. Before B.E.S.T., all of that money was put into the Colorado School Permanent Fund. The interest earned on that fund is used to support schools. The increased revenue from the Land Trust is allowing B.E.S.T. to use some of that money to subsidize construction projects in rural school districts, while continuing to grow the Permanent Fund.

"The land trust is a treasure for Colorado and their school children," Kennedy said.

B.E.S.T. has determined funding rates for school districts based on need. For major projects, a local district can pass a bond measure to raise a portion of construction costs for a new building. B.E.S.T. will provide the rest. For example, a district may raise $2 million dollars through a bond issue and receive another $18 million through B.E.S.T. to build a $20 million school building.

"They're suffering from the effects of this economic downturn just as we are here on the Front Range," Kennedy said. "We're able to bring jobs into these communities, hundreds of jobs."

Alamosa is one of the first districts to receive B.E.S.T. money. It will build two new schools. In rural districts across the state, B.E.S.T. will provide about $100 million over the next two years.

"They actually gave us money now to fix problems and not just postpone the problems," Jackson said.