Potential Plan to Build New High School
We have exciting news to share! The district is busy finalizing a plan to build a new high school, move Eaton Middle to the existing high school, move Eaton Elementary to the existing middle school building, and complete projects at Benjamin Eaton and Galeton Elementary Schools to increase safety. Recently we have learned that the assessed property value (as determined by Weld County Assessors) has increased substantially, mostly due to oil and gas production within our district boundaries. Now, our taxpayers will be able to finance a larger school facility bond for close to the same tax liability that was required for the lesser bond of eighty million. The additional bond capacity now allows us enough funds to build a new high school on the land the district owns south of the Eaton Area Recreation Center. The budget is $128.5 million. The impact for taxpayers would be $7.62 per $100,000 of a home's actual value for residential and $30.92 per $100,000 for commercial properties.
During the past year, we have been gathering feedback from the community, and we know that many of our stakeholders wanted to see a new high school built on the land we own along with replacing Eaton Elementary. This plan is effective and efficient in meeting the priorities we heard from the community for safer schools, more parking, enhanced educational programming, additional athletic/music facilities, and extra space for our growing community.