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The Lake School District, in Leadville Colorado, was one
of the six school districts represented in the Giardino lawsuit--filed
in 1998 and settled in 2000--that challenged the way the state
funds school capital. Six years later, although the district
has received grants from the small amount of funds available
from the settlement, it still has not been able to systemically
address the onslaught of school building needs.
After three failed bond measures in the last decade, the
district successfully passed one in 2003 for the first time
in 30 years. The bond, which provided a total of $1 million,
was enough to accomplish two renovation and repair projects.
Although the district's four schools are 30-50 years old
and all have substantial needs ranging from failing roofs
to inadequate electric, heating and ventilation systems
to structural problems, it is extremely unlikely that district
voters in this severely depressed town will ever approve
a bond measure substantial enough to address many of these
problems, let alone replace a single school.
As a result, the district is forced to manage an escalating
number of building crises rather than provide for regular
capital investment and renewal. Meanwhile, residents of the
neighboring affluent ski resort communities, where many Leadville
residents work, pay less than half the tax rate for their
school district, which has passed bonds for school construction
and renovation totaling $90 million over the past ten years.
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