PUEBLO, Colorado — Pueblo School District 60 breaks ground on two new schools this week.
With the continual construction of the new East and Centennial high school officially at their halfway point, the district is set to welcome two new additional schools, according to a press release.
Tuesday morning, the ground for the new Franklin School of Innovation was broken. The school will be located at 1315 Horseshoe Drive.
Sunset Park Elementary groundbreaking has been slated for Wednesday at 1 p.m. The school will be located at 110 University Circle.
The addition of these two new schools is a result of a partnership with District 60 stakeholders and the vision of District leadership, according to the release.
In 2019, voters approved a $218 million bond that was earmarked for renovation at Franklin and Sunset Park that was designed to keep the schools operational for a few years to come.
Once the bond was approved, the District looked beyond those planned upgrades to the possibility of building entirely new schools.
Along with the bond proceeds, the District applied for two Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Grants.
Although these are highly competitive grants, the state agreed with the vision of the District and awarded not one but two grants, opening the door to the building of brand new Franklin and Sunset Park schools rather than simply making repairs, according to the release.
Once the bond was gratefully approved by voters, we immediately looked at what was possible with these funds… It was the vision that enabled us to secure two BEST Grants that have led us to the groundbreakings we will celebrate next week. Through this partnership with the community, we are now building two more new schools, rather than making stop-gap repairs that would likely only extend the life of the buildings a few years.
Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso
