DEL NORTE—Over the last several weeks, the new Del Norte School design committee formed of local residents, school staff and school board members have traveled far and wide, looking at potential school design ideas for the new school. According to School Board President Neal Walter, the committee comprised of about 20 individuals, has ventured to three districts around Colorado to seek ideas for the design phase of the new school.

“We traveled to Glenwood Springs, Battle Mountain School and Lake County High School near Leadville to gain ideas about potential designs,” said Walters. During the three meetings held in the last few weeks, the design committee has also been working closely with TreanorHL Architects who have presented several preliminary plans for the new school. “We just keep going back and forth right now, trying to gain a perspective of what we want for a new school,” explained Walters.

Del Norte School Superintendent Chris Burr also stated that the design phase will be the most difficult part because of how much work goes into the planning. “We will have a more pronounced idea of what the draft design will look like at the beginning of the year and then we can start to host our public meetings to gain community input,” said Burr. He also stated that a detailed rendering will be the next phase, once the public gives input on the draft design which they hope to accomplish by February.

“I think with the design committee we have right now, we have a very rounded perspective from the community. We have parents and school officials, like the maintenance team weighing in on the design,” said Walters. “We are right in the middle of it and things are looking good.”

The community passed bond 3A in November, which awarded the school enough funding to build with the help of the BEST grant. As of right now, the proposed project will be built on land acquired by the district that lies to the east of the high school football field. School officials have yet to determine if the entire district will be in one building, as they have yet to reach the final stages of planning the design.

Other questions that have been asked include whether or not the buildings from the old school will be purchased or repurposed, to which school officials have stated that they have received letters of interest from local organizations wanting to repurpose or potentially buy three of the buildings from the old school.

Burr stated that school officials will be posting updates on the school’s website as they come available and urged the community to check there on a regular basis. For more information, please visit www.dncsd.org