Briefs RE1J School District

School Calendar Committee sets timeline
The Gunnison Watershed school district calendar committee is starting to prepare for next school year. A timeline is taking shape with a list of dates of anticipated meetings and potential agenda items for the committee to consider at those meetings.

With uncertainty still looming over the calendar requirements to come from the Colorado Department of Education, the committee will wait until May 13 to make its final recommendations to the school board.

School board looks to election
This year’s November ballot could host a couple of questions from the Gunnison Watershed School District, if more than one person steps up to fill each of two seats up for election on the board of education.
Outgoing board president Jim Perkins is term limited and will leave an open seat on the board and the board representative for areas north of Round Mountain, Lee Olesen, is up for reelection. If either seat attracts more than one candidate, which has been difficult in years past, the district will have to participate in the election.
Participating would give the district a chance to get input from voters on a couple of items that have been waiting for an election for resolution. The first possible question to voters would ask if the district should eliminate term limits for school board members, who now can only serve for two terms. The limits seemed unnecessary in the past several election cycles as some board seats have struggled to attract the interest of even one person.
Board president Jim Perkins told the board, “If there’s enough interest [in the open board seats] to cause an election … this could be an opportunity to eliminate term limits.” He suggested that the limit be either raised to a maximum of three terms or eliminated altogether.
A possible second question would ask voters if they felt like the areas north of Round Mountain, including Crested Butte, Crested Butte South and Mt. Crested Butte, should have an additional seat to represent their interests on the school board. Currently those areas have just one seat, held by Olesen.
Since that seat was created to accommodate a representative from the newly opened Crested Butte Community School, the school has nearly doubled in size. However, if the open board seats don’t attract enough interest to hold an election, the questions will be tabled until next time.
“I don’t know if spending the $17,000 or whatever it would cost to run an election just for two questions is a very good idea,” Perkins said.