Back to school comes mask-free and with fewer students

More kitchen staff, RTA adding overflow van

[  By Kendra Walker  ]

A new school year is back in full swing as Crested Butte Community School students returned to classrooms last week, and as Gunnison Watershed School District superintendent Dr. Leslie Nichols put it, “the positivity was palpable.”

“Everyone was so excited to get back to school and to get back to school without masks,” Nichols said. “We are getting to this place in the pandemic where we feel like it’s not a constant focus of every single day. We can better focus on learning and building community in our classrooms and just being able to more fully engage with our work of learning and teaching.” 

Food service is back at the CBCS kitchen this year, after last year’s hiatus, with Kim Kula returning as kitchen manager. Nichols said that there are also two full-time staff and four part-time staff, but noted that the school needs six full-time equivalent people to have a fully staffed kitchen. “My understanding is that it is going quite well,” she said. “Having Kim back is fantastic. She has such a passion for that position and is so skilled. The Crested Butte PTA have come with volunteers and support to be sure we can keep things functional, and they have been amazing.”

Nichols noted that the district also recently launched an internship program that would allow high school students to help in the school kitchens, which could potentially alleviate CBCS’ food needs in the future. 

In the realm of buses, Crested Butte still does not have any bus drivers. “It is disappointing that we opened the year without any drivers,” said Nichols. “That said, we do have some interest in some potential drivers for the Crested Butte routes.” To become a bus driver requires having a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) and specific training for driving a school bus. “When we have applicants it takes some weeks to complete that training, but I’m optimistic that soon we will have some bus service in Crested Butte,” she said. 

Nichols noted that the school continues to partner with RTA with an extra bus on its regular route from CB South in the mornings. The RTA has also added a van on that same route to carry overflow and extend student capacity. 

This year, the current student count at Crested Butte Community School is 735, down 20 students from last year at 755. While the official student count is tallied in October, this indicates that enrollment could be lower than the previous year for the second year in a row. During the 2020/21 school year in the thick of the pandemic, CBCS saw a record 793 students. 

Despite numbers dipping over the last couple years, the school has experienced consistent growth over the last 20 years, steadily increasing from its 347 count back in 2001/01. The district’s ballot measure on this upcoming November election, if passed, would fund school facility improvements that include addressing overcrowding issues at CBCS.