By Julia Caulfield
On Mondays in the run-up to the November Election, KOTO News is covering this year’s Ballot initiatives. This week, we have a profile on Ballot measure 4B, which asks voters if the Town of Rico should be annexed into the Telluride R-1 School District.
“This ballot measure is asking that the Rico area be detached from Dolores County School District, and annexed into Telluride School District,” says Madeline Tanguay, Yes for Rico School Kids Issues Committee.
In Colorado, students are not required to go to their home district school through a program called School Choice. Currently, the Town of Rico is part of the Dolores County School District, with the home district school in Dove Creek, but the majority of students from Rico attend school in Telluride. However, they’re not guaranteed a spot. Based on things like class size and staffing, the Telluride School District could tell out of district students, they don’t have capacity to accept their enrollment.
“There was a situation in the 2022-2023 school year, where a Rico family received a letter from Telluride School District,” notes Tanguay, “saying one of their children may not be admitted into Telluride Schools due to capacity concerns.”
If Rico was to join the Telluride School District, students living in Rico would be guaranteed a space in Telluride schools.
In order for Rico to join the Telluride School District, voters in both the Telluride and Dolores County School Districts must approve the measure.
Tenguay notes “Telluride School District residents will be voting on Measure 4B. Dolores County School District residents, including Rico currently, will be voting on Ballot Measure 5A. If it does not pass in one of the school districts, it will not pass overall.”
If the measure passes, it would go into effect in July 2024 for the 2024-2025 school year. Because of school choice, Rico students would still not be required to attend Telluride schools.
“Rico kids would still have the choice to ‘choice’ into other school districts, such as the Town of Dolores, but the majority of Rico school kids do already attend Telluride schools,” she adds.
When it comes to financial implications, Tanguay makes it clear that residents will not see any tax increases as a result of the measure.
“There are a lot of ballot measures this November that involve tax increases and this is not one of them,” clarifies Tanguay, “The other thing is that, Telluride already gets per pupil funding because the majority of Rico students already attend here, so Dove Creek (Dolores County Schools) would not be losing any of that because it already comes here to Telluride.”
She adds the potential detachment and annexation of Rico into the Telluride School District only impacts the school district lines.
“This is not affecting county boundaries. I know that that is a little bit of a confusing piece as well, and perhaps a concern for some voters, but if 4B and 5A do pass, Rico will still be a part of Dolores County. It’s really just the school district boundaries that will be detached and annexed to Telluride School District,” Tanguay says.
For Tanguay, the aim of the measure is to give Rico students a sense of belonging in the community.
“Living in Rico is amazing, and we also feel like we’re sort of in limbo on many things, because we are very far from our county seat, where the only Dolores County Schools are located,” Tanguay says, “We’re just much closer geographically to Telluride. We have a lot of things in common with Telluride, so I think that’s the biggest piece of this, just wanting Rico kids to never have to worry about whether or not they’ll be able to come to school here.”
Proposition 4B appears on the Ballot in this November’s election. Ballots have been mailed and are due in drop boxes by 7 PM on November 7th. To find all of KOTO’s election coverage, go to koto.org.