Action 7 Questions

Here is where those items are reflected in the budget:

Under the section marked Yurt Construction:

• Windows & Insulation: See the footnote associated with the line item: 30 ft diameter Yurt with Cement Foundation (the footnote of the cell that says: $53,900)

Under the section marked Yurt Utilities & Finish:

• Heat & AC: Covered by HVAC (heating, ventilation & air conditioning)

• Finished Floors: Covered by Tiling Floor

• Plumbing: Covered by Water & Sewer, and Bathroom Utilities

Under the section marked Other Costs:

• Furnishing: Covered under Furniture for Classrooms & Admin space

* There is not a line item specific for electricity, but we believe that is factored into the overall cost of Yurt Construction and should’ve been itemized in the footnote above on Windows and Insulation. This will be noted in the final report to be confirmed if either action goes to a next stage toward implementation.

It appears that Montrose could apply for the Colorado BEST grant for Action 7 or Action 8. It is a competitive grant that provides financial assistance to school districts for the construction and/or renovation of new or existing schools.

None of the Actions are locked in concrete. The results of the Unify Montrose deliberation are recommendations to the Montrose community and Montrose leadership on what actions it believes should be pursued. The school district will be the final arbiter on any replacing of the Early Childhood Center, so they could certainly choose to look at other options.

Yes, they could. See the response above about actions not being locked in concrete. It is worth noting that the budget for Actions 7 and 8 includes a reserve for replacing the roofs and walls of the Yurts. An interesting question for future consideration is the difference in costs of options that do not require a replacement (but might still require maintenance) versus the cost of the Yurts including the cost of the reserve for replacement. No research was done to compare those costs at this point.

The BEST grant (which is partially funded by marijuana tax revenue) does not cover the complete costs of the construction of new public school facilities, only a portion. The school district believes that a BEST grant could cover 30% to 40% of the costs, if awarded. So, the school district would need to have a line of sight on how to fund the other 60% to 70% of the costs. The school district did indicate that support of the Assembly — as representatives of the community — for replacing the aging ECE Center, would be helpful in a grant application.

For more information: Marijuana Tax Revenue and Education | CDE (state.co.us)

In short, the funding for Colorado’s UPK is not scheduled to end any time soon. Colorado’s UPK was passed into legislation via HB 22-1295. Funding for the UPK for FY 23-24 will be sourced from the General Revenue Fund, and is ongoing. The amount will vary by year: FY 23-24 will require a transfer of $136.8M from General Revenue to the newly created Preschool Programs Cash Fund, with following years requiring an inflation adjustment. UPK is also funded through Proposition EE, which was a legislative referendum passed November 2020 by ballot measure. Proposition EE utilizes taxes from cigarette, tobacco, and nicotine products to fund various state programs. Additional information regarding UPK funding can be found here.

Families of qualifying 3- and 4-year-olds can benefit from Colorado’s UPK program until the child is able to register for school (typically around 5 years old). For 3-year-olds, UPK can be received for roughly 2 years, and 4-year-olds can receive UPK for about a year.

To determine whether yurts were a viable structure for preschool classrooms, we worked with the Montrose School District, the head of Early Childhood licensing for the Western Slope and the head of Early Childhood licensing for the State of Colorado in Denver. Colorado early childhood licensing confirmed that a yurt could be used as a preschool classroom as long as it adhered to all the early childhood regulations (adequate square footage per child, number of doors in and out of the classroom, access to an individual bathroom, etc.) Beyond that, the zoning department, health department and fire department needed to certify the yurt for occupancy. To that end, we also worked with John Gibson, owner of Secret Creek, the local manufacturer of yurts in Montrose. He, in turn, made inquiries to the zoning department, health department and fire department to confirm a yurt could be certified. It can be and has been: the school district already uses yurts at its outdoor elementary and middle school called Outer Range. It is also worth adding that leaders at the State of Colorado Department of Early Childhood said they would, if the project were to go forward, make themselves available to help overcome obstacles if they come up.

The roof of a Yurt is usually the first item that needs to be replaced. And the timeframe is about 10-15 years, depending on factors like the weather. If the Yurts were purchased from Secret Creek, Montrose’s local manufacturer, the roofs come with a 15 year warranty, prorated to age of replacement. The replacement cost of a roof, today, if paid in full, installed, for a 30 foot diameter Yurt is $8,000. Replacing it takes one day, and it will last for another 10-15 years.

Yes. Yurts are required to pass inspection by the Fire Department, Zoning Department and Health Department. Yurts can be approved by all of those departments (and have been for the Montrose School District’s Outer Range school).

A Yurt then needs to be licensed by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. In researching this Action, the Unify team spoke with the local head of licensing for Early Childhood, and the head of licensing for the state in Denver. Both confirmed that a Yurt could be approved as a Preschool if - like the trailers or in a standard building - it had the proper number of square feet available per child, a dedicated bathroom, two exits and other requirements to which Yurts can conform. Since a Yurt Village preschool would be the first of its kind, the state also pledged their assistance if the plan were to be executed.

It would likely be built at a new site. For security reasons, drop-off efficiency for parents and other challenges, the current site is not ideal, according to the School District. The School District has looked at placing a new building on land owned by the city or district. The District could sell or swap out its existing land as needed. Or possibly it could purchase land adjacent to the current location of the ECE Center, were it available. There is no exact answer today to this question.

They would remain in operation.

First, the cost of new construction in Montrose right now is extremely high. Montrose has a Yurt manufacturing facility in town, Secret Creek. They can be produced in volume efficiently. Once cement foundations are laid with the appropriate plumbing, sewer and electricity, the Yurts are brought to site and set up quickly. Per square foot of finished space, the labor cost of constructing a Yurt is considerably less than new construction.

It would take approximately 6 months after permitting is complete. Prepping the site would take about 60-90 days. That includes grading, running sewer, water and electricity, and pouring foundations for the Yurts. And building the Yurts would take 90 - 120 days. But these two phases would overlap: Yurts would be built once foundations were in place for them, as more foundations were being poured.

The Action in its current form calls for at least some classrooms to open early morning before work starts (say 7:30) to early evening after work ends (say 5:30 pm). But parents would have an option of sending their children for half-days, full-days (approximately 8:30am-3pm) or, as described above, extended days.

No, there is not. The youngest children in the preschool would generally be no less than 3 years old. And could go there until they reached Kindergarten age, which for most children is 5 years old.

There is a scarcity of Infant and Toddler Care in Montrose, because of the cost of having more staff per child. Infant and toddler care needs to be handled by private Childcare Centers and Licensed Homecare. The School District said they are not prepared to take that on.

The head of operations for the School District said that security would be factored into the design of the site. For example, there might be two solid boundaries, an inner perimeter and outer perimeter, with limited access points allowing on-site security to control who can get in, and cameras everywhere. But a design would need to be determined during implementation.

Olathe already has a functioning preschool at the site of its elementary school, and under this Action, the Early Childhood Center Upgrade, that preschool would continue to operate normally.

Since almost all of the students who attend the District Preschool do NOT pay tuition (because they have qualifying factors such as learning disabilities, poverty, etc.) the affordability gap is less of an issue with this Action. However, the ECC preschool is likely to be completely full by early next year (and would be closer to full now if the state were clear about the funding available for 3 years olds under Universal Pre-K). And there are 50 children, right now, who are eligible for Headstart full day service, but Montrose does not have enough classrooms that can accommodate full day preschool. And according to the 2021 Childcare Assessment, the need for spaces is going to grow. So, this Action does meaningfully increase number of spots available, especially full day spots.

Yes! Secret Creek has helped provide estimates for this action.

According to this Daily Sentinel article from 2021, the Montrose County School District identified 221 children as homeless.

We’ll try to get a more updated number posted here soon, but wanted to get this information to you quickly.

As explained in the Lowdown for Actions 7 and 8, the Early Childhood Center’s trailers lack enough full-day classroom space for Headstart eligible children, old and needing repair, and will likely hit capacity this year.

That said, there are a lot of K-8 students (around 4,000), and comparatively few afterschool spots for enriching activities (around 260).

But where is the need greatest? And how to respond? These are the kind of question that you Delegates are best positioned to wrestle with.