A win-win business model of how governments can work with schools
Colorful student artwork and national awards line the hallways inside the Gilpin County RE-1 School District complex. The proud, welcoming environment appears as though it has always been this way, but just ten years ago serious financial problems were threatening to send the local school district into the Colorado history books. The Great Recession of 2007-2009 and state budget shortfalls led the legislature to withdraw a percentage of funding from every school district across Colorado and were especially devastating in Gilpin County. College preparation test scores in the Gilpin RE-1 School District were abysmal and parents were enrolling their children in other school districts. The possibility existed at the state level that the Gilpin County RE-1 School District would be forced into an involuntary merger with one of the larger nearby school districts in Boulder, Clear Creek, or Jefferson counties. An action this drastic would come as a hard blow and a devastating loss to Gilpin County which was established in 1860 as one of the original 17 counties in the Colorado Territory. Gilpin County has a proud and long history of supporting education through local control. As the second smallest county in the state, financial resources for the school district were limited, even with the development which had taken place in the cities of Black Hawk and Central City as a result of limited gaming being introduced in 1990. The Gilpin School District’s situation was indeed dire.
In 2008, a conversation took place between Gilpin County Commissioner Ron Slinger, City of Central Mayor Buddy Schmalz, and City of Black Hawk Mayor David Spellman. Both Slinger and Schmalz had children attending the Gilpin School and expressed their concerns to Spellman about the school’s financial condition. Slinger and Schmalz were looking for ways the County and two cities (Black Hawk and Central) might aid the local school district. Spellman agreed with their concerns and said he would add it to Black Hawk’s “arena of ideas.”
Support authors and subscribe to content
Subscribe to read the entire article.
