“It is really important to the district’s leaders that this is driven by the community, and what community members need and want for their schools,” BSD Assistant Superintendent Bill Hesford said.
The process of creating a Master Facility Plan began in February when the district named a six-member Master Planning Team and issued a Request for Qualifications/Proposals for master planning firms. The committee was comprised of Hesford, Superintendent Leon Hanhardt, Maintenance Director Rick Corcorran, and school board member Matt Turner, as well as two members of the community — Kristin Dallison and Russell Wise.
That team helped identify three finalists from the five firms who submitted master planning proposals, and in April was instrumental in recommending Chamberlin Architects of Grand Junction, Colorado to develop the master plan.
“It is a firm that has done a lot of work in Bayfield in the past. They were a major player in the Bayfield Intermediate School project and the remodel of Bayfield Primary School, and they have also been involved in work at Bayfield High School in recent years. Those projects were done on time and under budget,” Hesford explained.
The firm has already performed assessments on the district’s buildings and the district’s planning team has participated in a number of meetings with them to lay the groundwork for the workshops. Those workshops will provide valuable community input to the process by allowing planners to share and analyze information with stakeholders and discuss options to address any deficiencies that have been identified in district facilities.
District officials are hoping to attract a variety of residents who represent a cross-section of the community to engage in the workshops, and have begun reaching out to parents, business owners, elected officials, police and fire department representatives and others to encourage participation in this phase of the master planning process.
“We’re going from a 5-person steering committee to a 30 to 40-person workshop team,” Hesford reported. “Members of the community are being identified and invited to the workshop by district officials, and we have already invited some parents and other stakeholders by email.”
He acknowledged that there may be individuals who are not on the district’s email list who would like to take part in the exercise and he encouraged them to notify district officials of their interest.
“We know there are people who haven’t been contacted yet, and I hope that anybody who wants to participate will email me ([email protected]) or call the district office at (970) 884-2496,” he said.
The workshops will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on September 4, September 25, and October 29 and refreshments will be served to attendees beginning at 5 p.m. Those who wish to be part of the community focus group are being asked to make a commitment to participate in all three workshops.
“Throughout the course of three meetings, we will learn the thoughts, needs, and opinions of members of our community to better inform our decisions for students, staff, parents and the Bayfield Community,” BSD Board President Rebecca Parnell wrote in a letter inviting stakeholders to participate in the exercise. “We will be discussing some very large topics as we plan the future of the district's buildings, fields, and facilities for the next 7-10 years. We hope you can commit to fully representing your community at all three work sessions.”
The first and last workshop sessions (September 4 and October 29) will be held at Bayfield Intermediate School — the district’s newest facility — while the middle session (September 25) is slated for Bayfield Middle School, which was built over 50 years ago and has begun to present a growing list of maintenance needs to district officials.
“This is a thorough and comprehensive review of all district facilities, but a significant portion of the focus of this exercise is on Bayfield Middle School,” Hesford explained. “The architects have done a full assessment of BMS - mechanical, engineering, structural, landscape - and less intensive assessments of our other buildings.”
Bayfield Intermediate School was built in 2018 and Bayfield Primary School was extensively remodeled in that same year after being constructed in 1999. Bayfield High School was constructed in 1997 but enhanced in 2013 with the addition of the Performing Arts Center and Auxiliary Gym. Bayfield Middle School was erected in 1977 and is the most likely piece of key infrastructure in the district to require work that will make a significant impact on future budgets.
“We have targeted parents in the younger grades to some extent because they have more at stake with kids coming into the middle school, and may be more invested in participating in these workshops,” Hesford said, indicating that district officials also plan to include 4 to 8 student representatives from Bayfield Middle School and Bayfield High School in the focus group so decision-makers will be able to draw on their perspective as well.
The Master Facility Plan is intended to address both the short-term and long-term needs of all of the district’s existing facilities and district officials hope it will serve as a “road map ultimately leading to high performing 21st century school facilities.”