Last December, the Re-1 school board began discussions regarding the possible sale of a 20.89-acre parcel of land it owns —part of which is the site of the Southwest Open High School.

"The [approximately] 20 acres of land [adjacent to Southwest Open’s campus] has been sitting there unused for between 15 and 20 years," said Bill Thompson, Re-1 superintendent of schools. "The Re-1 school board decided that they would like to sell the property and use the capital from the sale to fund more educational programs."

But Re-1 wants to give Southwest the chance to buy five of those acres so the school won’t have to move elsewhere.

Since putting the land up on the sale block, both Re-1 and Southwest Open school boards have been corresponding through letters.

"Originally, Southwest Open asked the Re-1 board to donate between five and eight acres of land to the school," says Stephen Sloan, a Southwest Open school-board member.

However, Thompson stated that the Re-1 board felt that it was not in the best interest of the Cortez taxpayers to donate the land. Instead, he said, the board has been discussing selling a five-acre plot to the charter school at a price that is fair but would not be giving it away.

Right now, the discussion price for Southwest Open’s five acres is $50,000, said Thompson; however, that has not yet been settled on.

According to Mary Zummach, an appraiser at the Montezuma County assessor’s office, one acre of land in the vicinity of the charter school (northeast of town) would have been valued at $10,670 in mid-1998.

"We are not setting a precedent here by not giving the land away to the charter school," the superintendent stated. "Some charter schools have land donated to them and some have to buy," he said.

In the case of the Battle Rock School, the only other charter school within the Re-1 district, the land was provided as part of an estate loaned to the district to be used for school purposes. Thompson said that If the Battle Rock School were ever abandoned, the Re-1 district still wouldn’t be able to sell that land. "It’s not ours to sell," he said.

"Currently, Southwest Open is sitting on 1.3 acres of land and it needs room to expand," said Sloan. "We had 164 students enrolled at the October count and we need more classrooms, bathrooms and an athletic field."

Before any sale to the charter school is made final, some considerations will have to be made, the superintendent said. "In order for remaining land behind Southwest Open to retain any value, we will have to get an easement so that there can be an access road to the land from the Dolores Road."

Without an easement, the 20 acres would be landlocked and would be very difficult to develop, Thompson said.

The two school boards are planning to meet again soon to discuss such options, Thompson said.