Peetz community welcomes future school

PEETZ -- The Peetz community turned out to celebrate the future school building Friday.

The ceremonial turning the first shovels of dirt occurred before students, staff, company representatives and community members in a 2:30 p.m. ceremony.

The project is needed for the date of the building and for the safety of the students, according to Peetz School Board President Shauna Reker and School Superintendent Jeff Durbin.

"I think time was of the essence. We need a new school; definitely needs some TLC. We had great leadership in Mr. Durbin to go after the BEST grant in Colorado, and paired with that, we were able to get the bond passed with a lot of work from community members, so the rest is kind of history. Today is our big day of celebration," Reker said Friday.  

Supt. Durbin said the project has community support and vision.

"I'm very excited about the whole opportunity. When I was fortunate to interview for the superintendency of Peetz, that was one of their biggest pushes to go after the BEST grant to possibly help our facilities. Being in education for 32-some years, of all the school districts I've been in, I can guarantee Peetz School District was definitely the school district that I felt needed the most help in regards to maintaining facilities and getting them up to where they are, because it was pretty bad," Durbin said.

He said much of the school building is more than 70 years old. The new building will take about 22 months to complete once work begins. The new building will be build at the front of the existing school. Durbin said the new school will include the two gymnasiums and the shop area, current AG facility.

"Everything else will be scraped, and everything else will be brand new," he said.

The celebration included presentations by students, speeches by the architect firm The Neenan Company, LLP, and school officials. Young students were also included in the celebration with posters and leading in the National Anthem.