Our District's History

Preface

"Durango is truly a city of families and schools", crowed an 1891 issue of the Durango Weekly Tribune. A living legacy of the Durango community, the school district's history reflects the trials and challenges of its multi-generation residents and of the new "westerners" drawn to this unique place in the world. The lengthy list of outstanding teachers, administrators and community members who have shaped the Durango school system is impressive and--well--much too long to include in a summary of the school's past. This report is more of a starting point---an overall perspective on how the district got from 1876 to 2001. It relies heavily on the minutes of the school board, articles in the local newspapers and recollections of alumni and educators. Maybe it will inspire more people to record their memories of the schools. A list of suggested references is included at the end. Please use it and enjoy it.

The first schools

The southwest corner of the Colorado Territory was bustling with anticipation in 1876. The hopes of settlers in the San Juan Basin had little to do with the Territory's incumbent statehood, however, and everything to do with precious metal discoveries in the mountains and farmlands in the valleys.1829

The little town of Animas City was also founded in 1876. It incorporated two years later with a population of 250, including a postmaster, a justice of the peace and a teacher in the first schoolhouse in the Animas Valley. A mining and agricultural supply center, Animas City was located along the main wagon roads in the region. The town's brief heyday ended with the arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The D &RG's extension into the mineral rich mountains of southern Colorado required a terminus in the Animas Valley.

Animas City might have been a reasonable site, but railroad officials chose to develop their own lucrative real estate project, a town named Durango located just a couple of miles south of Animas City. The company platted Durango in 1880, and the railroad arrived in August 1881, leaving Animas City with nothing more than a whistle stop as the railroad passed through town. In its glory days Animas City gained the distinction of having the first school in the Animas Valley. The log cabin schoolhouse was located at approximately 2211 North Main (modern address). It was the product of Animas City School District #1. Before 1947, Colorado school districts were managed locally by an elected County Superintendent of Schools. Residents created a school district by petitioning the County Superintendent. The petitioners had to list at least 10 children who could be served by the new district. Schools were supposed to be located no further than five miles from any student. In rural southwestern Colorado, this system created numerous small schoolhouses in many districts. La Plata County had 36 independent school districts by the early 1920's. Districts were normally numbered in the order they were formed. Hence, Animas City was district #1. The Durango District came in at #9. Schools were a very high priority in Durango's quest for respectability. On February 9, 1881, six months before the railroad had even arrived in Durango, 17 petitioners applied to County Superintendent W.N. Rohrer to form Durango School District #9. The petition identified 26 school age children to be served by the district. The following day, citizens held a public meeting in W.B. Carter's store and those present voted 34-0 to organize the school district and to elect a board of education. The new district rented space at the Episcopal Church, which at that time was located at about 1050 East Second Avenue (current address). Classes started on March 21, 1881. Mrs. Martha Ballard of Lima, Ohio was the sole teacher. Attendance increased rapidly, requiring an additional teacher, Miss Pearl Gaines, who joined the staff on May 7. The Spring term ended on June 17, 1881. Cultural Resource Planning Page 1

That summer, Durango voters approved the first school bond of $10,000 to construct the District's original school building. Initially called the Southside School, the building was named the Longfellow School some time around 1886. The school was built between 9th and 10th Streets on the east side of East 5th Avenue, and took about a year to complete. Without the benefit of a public school building, no public education was available in the fall term of 1881 and the early spring of 1882. Private schools filled the need, including one run by Leila Westcott. Ms Westcott charged $1 per student per week and provided family discounts for multiple siblings. Longfellow School opened on March 2, 1882 with three teachers---Sarah Trew, Martha Ballard and Pearl Gaines. The former mayor of Animas City, Mr. Eli E. Fox served to as principal and superintendent of the district.

By the end of the first term on June 22, 1882, the student census was 184. The pupil/teacher ratio was actually quite high. If divided among the four teachers (Mr. Fox also taught), the ratio was 46/1. The student population grew to 199 in time for Durango School District #9's third term, started on September 2. Mrs. S.E. McKenzie, a teacher from the Trimble Springs School District, joined the staff in 1883. Unfortunately, all was not well for Superintendent Fox, who died of pneumonia on March 27, 1885. Sarah Trew served as the acting principal for the rest of the year. Ms Trew returned to the principal position in 1888 but she also succumbed to pneumonia while on the job, in 1889. Durango's first suburb, North Durango (the area north of the Animas River on either side of Main up to about 22nd Street), was annexed into Durango in 1885 bringing more children in to the district. Voters passed an $8,000 bond issue to add two new classrooms to the Longfellow School and to build a two-classroom school on the west side of Main Avenue at 19th Street for the recently annexed Durango residents.

The new school came to be known as the Whittier School. Inez Chase was the first principal and the only teacher at the school during the first term. The expanded Longfellow School reorganized from four classrooms to an 8-grade system. In 1888, new superintendent J.H. Smith created Durango's first high school system by dividing the 541 pupils into Primary (1-5 grades), Intermediate (6-7 grades), Grammar (8-9 grades) and High School (10-12 grades). The high school had a distinguished faculty in that all three teachers held masters degrees. Longfellow School graduated Durango's first high school student in 1889 when Walter Greenfield, the sole member of the senior class, received his diploma. Other Durango students pursued less-distinguished activities. The September 26, 1888 edition of the Durango Herald reported that 6 schoolboys charged with "pelting the school house with rocks and rotten peaches after dark..." were fined $5 each. Young Anna Mary Jelinek, the daughter of recent immigrants, could not speak English at the beginning of her term at Whittier School, and endured the taunts of classmates who called her Anna jelly-on-the-neck.

Thomas Baker, who had replaced Smith in 1889 as Superintendent, continued to expand on the professionalism of the public school system. He extended the high school term to 38 weeks and obtained accreditation for the system from Colorado University. He also added the 9th grade to the high school.

In 1891, Baker established the first qualifications requirement for teachers. All teachers had to hold a "First Class Certificate" to teach in the district. Veteran teacher Pearl Gaines drew a salary of $70 month, which, while not exorbitant, was respectable for a woman at that time. Mary B. Rockwood was hired as the Durango High School principal from 1890-1892. Ms Rockwood and was remembered by former pupil, Edna Newman Sheets, as "...the unforgettable Mary B. Rockwood who gladly taught us the complexities of Latin and shared with us her delight in English literature".

The facilities had become so crowded that the district was renting space in a business building in downtown Durango and a room in the Hanson Opera Building in order to have enough classrooms. In September of 1891, voters approved bonds for $20,000 to build a "high school". Well-known Denver architect, J.J. Huddart designed the structure.

The school was built on the west side of East 4th Avenue, in the 1200 block, and opened in 1893. Although it was called the "High School", the building also contained classrooms for the 5th-8th graders. After the Longfellow School burned down in 1901, six more classrooms were added to the High School in 1902.

Many rural students attended the High School, because it provided a post 8th grade education that was not available in the rural schools. The high school students often boarded in town during the week while attending school and returned to the farm on the weekends.

Durango's continued growth led to the construction of Park Elementary School in 1899- 1900. The new elementary school, designed by local architect Silas Smith, finally replaced the last "temporary classrooms", which in this case were rented rooms in a nearby commercial building.

The Smiley Era

In 1903, the school board was undecided about renewing the contract of Superintendent Edgar R. Downs. The contract was approved by a one-vote margin, with some board members refusing to vote. School board elections immediately followed the board's decision, and an incumbent who supported Downs was not re-elected. The newly established board decided to ignore the previous board's decision and held a second vote on the superintendent. Downs was voted out and replaced by George W. Gould.

Three years later Gould was voted out of his position in yet another controversial school board decision. The district's teachers had petitioned the school board to retain Gould while 700 residents petitioned for the high school principal, Emory E. Smiley.

New superintendent Smiley had more than a school district to run. He had to convert the community's sentiment from years of controversy into a united support for the schools. He accomplished this task quite successfully during his 37 years on the job. Superintendent Smiley led the Durango School district through the construction of two major buildings and the expansion of the classroom curriculum during the chaos of the First World War and the desperation of the Depression.

Born in 1873 in Ironton, Ohio, Emory Smiley came to Durango in 1903 to serve as the high school principal. He fell in love with Goldie Hocker, the charming music teacher at the high school, and married her in 1918. In a Durango Herald profile of Smiley, former Smiley Junior High principal Hoyt Miller wrote:

Local legend has it---and it has never been successfully disproved---that he knows and can call every one of the 1,600 pupils in the Durango school system by his first name.... Seven o'clock each school day finds him busy at his desk. At 4pm each day he peremptorily bangs shut his office door and retires to his home. Here he meticulously tends his own lawn with a precision that keeps each blade of grass and every shrub in a state of startled alertness.

Smiley's first major challenge was overcrowding at the High School. Although graduating classes remained small (ranging in the 20's) between 1905 and 1915, the school also housed grades 5-8 in addition to the high school classes. Durango's growing student population required more classrooms. Superintendent Smiley led the movement for a new high school to be built on East 2nd Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets. The school board approached the various landowners at this location and most were willing to sell. The most important partner in the acquisitions turned out to be the City of Durango. The school district wanted to place the building smack in the middle of the East Second Avenue right of way. The City Council supported the new school and abandoned the Avenue and an alley through the block between 12th and 13th Streets to accommodate the new school.

In 1916 a bond election passed for $175,000 to fund construction. The Colorado Springs architectural firm of Thomas MacLaren and Charles Thomas designed the new facility.

With Superintendent Smiley's guidance the architects composed a progressive, modern facility based on extensive research of high school facilities throughout the country. The building even had a "plunge pool" located in the basement to provide the latest physical education opportunities. The Durango Evening Herald noted in its January 13, 1916 edition, "Our little city will have the distinction of keeping apace with eastern educational centers and in some things leading them." The old high school was converted to a junior high and was known as the "Junior High School".

The new high school opened in September of 1917 with 304 students in attendance. The opening day celebration, held in the new auditorium, was a welcome diversion from the growing tensions of World War I. The anxieties of the war soon intruded on the new facility. In the summer of 1918, during a meeting of the school board while Smiley was out of town on vacation, German language classes were struck from the curriculum. That summer, German texts and reference books were burned.

Durango High School was forced to close a little more than a year after its opening when on October 4 the first case of Spanish influenza was discovered in Durango. The High School closed on October 17, 1918 to prevent the spread of this disease, and remained closed until January 6, 1919.

The high school continued the tradition of providing a post-eighth grade education to rural children and to the nearby Animas City School District residents. Non-district residents could attend the Durango schools for a small tuition.

Lester Short, a Durango High School 1925 graduate who grew up on the family ranch on Florida Mesa recalled how it was to be a farm kid at the city school. He remembered the cliques of city kids and of country kids, but they didn't particularly intimidate him. "I was easy-going and very popular because of my truck".

Ernie Schaaf remembered that he was too poor to buy a Toltec while he was in school in 1933. He ended up buying his Toltec years later at an auction. The Depression brought hard times to Durango. In 1932, teachers' salaries ranged from $102-324 a month. As the school board faced the budget for 1933, it became clear there would not be enough money to maintain the established salary level. Emory E. Smiley volunteered to reduce his pay to allow enough funds for all employees to remain. The teacher's monthly salary range for that year went down to $84-$240, and Smiley's compensation declined from $337.50 to $300.

The school districts across all of Colorado suffered tremendously from the decline in income. Up until 1936, the only state aid to the schools stemmed from the original school legislation of 1876, which set aside sections 16 and 36 in every township for the school district covering that area. In 1936 Colorado voters approved the first state tax on individual and corporate income, with the first year's proceeds to go towards the schools.¹ Without much of a funding base, it is remarkable that voters approved a $97,000 bond in 1935 to construct a new junior high school. An $86,198 grant from Roosevelt's New Deal Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works fund made this project the largest federal public works undertaking in Durango. Charles Thomas designed the Mission Style building that was constructed at the northwest corner of East Third Avenue and 13th Street. Once again, the Durango City Council chipped in by abandoning the 13th Street right of way along the south side of the building. Raymond C. Whitlock won the contract to build the school, which provided jobs for many unemployed locals.

The school opened in January of 1936. The Lions Club, with many of Smiley's former students among its membership, championed naming the new school in his honor. A year later, Smiley wrangled an additional $9,000 grant from the Public Works Administration to add a manual training facility. A former industrial arts teacher, Don Johnson, recalled that although Smiley was "not mechanically inclined", the Superintendent took the manual training courses and taught them the first year while he searched for a teacher for the program.  
  
The old Junior High School was again transformed, this time into an elementary school, and renamed The Central Elementary School in 1936. The district obtained another building in 1939 when the Animas City School District #1 consolidated with the Durango District. The 1904 sandstone three-story Animas City School at the southwest corner of 31st Street and West 2nd Avenue became an elementary school in the Durango District. With the addition of the District #1's children, the school age population hit an all time high in 1939 of 1,978.  
  
Emory Smiley continued as the school superintendent until he retired in 1943. He remained a leader, serving in the Colorado State Senate. He left a giant legacy and is fondly remembered by many Durango alumni.  
  
¹ Colorado's school laws had been established when the Colorado Territory organized during Abraham Lincoln's administration. The Territory's first governor, William Gilpin was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and was very familiar with Illinois schools, so Colorado's new educational system was modeled after the State of Illinois.  

Education after World War II  

The 1950's found a financially strapped Durango School Board struggling to expand facilities and to address a changing society after World War II. Soldiers returning from the war and new residents attracted by the oil and gas development in the area swelled Durango's population. This was not the time for a facilities crisis, but the 1950 school board faced just such a predicament when the Central Elementary School burned to the ground.  
  
Thomas Moore, a Denver architect who had been working on a facilities assessment for the district, quickly drew up plans for a new building at the same site. A bid was awarded to C.E. Poland to build the school for about $185,000. The school opened in 1951. The school board named the school Mason Elementary to honor Thomas Mason, who had served on the school board for 30 years and who was the County Treasurer.  
  
While the School board was facing the Central School crisis, work had begun on a new elementary school in the 2300 block of West 2nd Avenue, at what was known as the Quonset Site. (Quonset buildings were used during World War II for temporary shelters, offices and homes. Some of these surplus buildings provided cheap housing in Durango after the war.) The building was named Needham School after Elza Needham who had patiently worked as the high school principal (1925-1943) during much of E.E. Smiley's lengthy tenure, and had finally achieved the position of Superintendent upon Smiley's retirement.  
  
The original construction bid price for the building was $223,000 and the contract was awarded to M.F. McGechie. Fans of convoluted, never-ending building alterations and cost overruns in construction would enjoy reading the school board minutes and local newspapers during the construction of this school, which seemed to be constantly in a state of pending problems and repairs.  
  
Tensions over the costs, delays and temporary crowding came to a head in an unexpected way. In 1951, parents approached the school board with a request for kindergartens to be added to the elementary schools. Colorado law never has, and still does not, require kindergarten to be incorporated into school district curricula. Each district decides on its own whether to offer kindergarten. Strapped with other demands, the school board turned down the request.  
  
The kindergarten defeat did not go over well with the public, causing the board to produce a proclamation defending its decision in an attempt to regain some standing with the community. The proclamation notes that the Korean War had unexpectedly caused construction costs to soar and that the community faced an even greater demand for elementary and junior high school classrooms due to the new subdivisions being developed on the mesa east of the Animas River. These combined demands left no money to address the kindergartens.  
  
The board's claims were born out in the cost overruns that continued through the construction of Needham Elementary and in the petition presented to the Board in 1952 by residents of the new Riverview Addition subdivision. The petition requested a new school to accommodate the 28 children in the subdivision who were of school age. Paul Atchison was hired in 1956 to design the Riverview Elementary School. The school's generic name resulted from a school board that was growing tired of being in the center of controversy. The board members wanted a name that would not offend anyone! A substantial addition to the building was funded through a variety of bonds, including a 1958 bond for $650,000 that also paid for additions to the Needham, Park and Animas City schools. The Arts and Science building was also constructed on the high school campus at this time (1956-1957).  
  
The district sold property in the 1950's to help fund new projects, including the Whittier School and a schoolhouse located at East Animas Road (CR250) and Trimble Lane. The schoolhouse is part of the large home located at the southwest corner of East Animas and Trimble Lane. The Whittier School was torn down.  
  
Other significant changes to the district administration occurred in the 1950's. Upon the completion of the Arts and Science Building, the school board held its regular meetings in this public facility, rather than in the private offices of the secretary of the school board. In 1957, a paid secretary was employed for the first time to record the minutes and maintain the agendas for the meetings.  
  
The annual salary scale included in the minutes of a 1958 School board meeting ranged from $2,800 for non-degreed teachers who were just starting out in the Durango schools to $5,700 for teachers with a masters degree and 12 years of tenure with the district. Teachers who had worked for more than 12 years received an increase of $20 times the number of years served.  
  
The first recreation committee involving cooperation between the City of Durango and the schools was created in 1953 and the district implemented its first fee schedule for use of its facilities.  
  
Curriculum and sports changes reflected the changes in society. Drivers' education was introduced in 1952. Superintendent Willard Canode developed an expanded foreign language program in 1958 that could include the 5th and 6th grades.  
  
Athletics were popular, but at least for the younger students, were not a very high priority within the school system. In 1956, the school board adopted a policy that no junior high students could engage in competition that was more than 50 miles away. The Board also agreed not to budget to purchase football equipment for the junior high school teams, noting that the emphasis for this age group should be inter-mural. (Note-in a couple of informal interviews with former students from this time period, it appears that a booster club may have purchased the football equipment for the younger students in spite of the school board's official stance.)  
  
Skiing became more popular, most likely through the rigorous promotion of the sport by the County's Recreation Director, Dolph Kuss. In 1958, Mr. Kuss developed a partnership with the district to support the costs and administration of the burgeoning ski program in La Plata County.  

The R in 9R  

The 1950's were a decade of intensive construction, including three new elementary schools and additions to all of the other functioning school buildings. School curricula changed as Durango's population became more sophisticated. A final event in 1959 marked the end of Durango's strictly urban schools, and created a bigger, more diverse district.  
  
The reorganization effort began with the Colorado State Legislature in 1947. After World War II, the state struggled to raise its educational standards and to find ways to fund public education. The state contained scattered rural school districts that rarely offered education beyond the 8th grade. New technologies brought about by the war were not available to isolated rural schools. The legislature allocated additional funding to school coffers by raising the proportion of property taxes that were allotted to the school districts. A law passed in 1947 to centralize the school systems required rural school districts to consolidate, and removed the old County School Superintendent system.  
  
Southwest Colorado was slow to react to the legislation, but eventually the consolidation was completed. In 1957 a school district reorganization program committee formed to develop a consolidation plan to offer to the voters of the rural districts. With members from both the city and rural school districts the committee pounded away at a plan and came up with three alternatives. "Plan B" became the most favored approach. It consolidated 12 rural districts with the Durango district. None of the rural districts selected for consolidation had a high school. Five of the rural districts had already started sending their elementary school children to schools in other districts. Under the consolidation plan, no existing elementary school would be closed. All of the junior high students would attend Smiley Junior High.  
The mandated consolidation had been handled in a very orderly way in accordance with the requirements of the state laws, but many in the rural community opposed the entire concept. Bruce Spining's book about the country schools on the Florida Mesa (Clapboards, School Boards and Blackboards) provides some insight from his interview with Violet Tiposch, who was elected County Superintendent of Schools in 1948; one year after the state legislation was passed. Mrs. Tiposch remembered, "When the state mandated consolidation, I went out to explain what the new requirements meant for the local districts. The hostility was incredible.... even personal slurs against my character were widespread.... It was an uphill battle and it took almost a dozen years for the process to work itself out".  
  
On March 3, 1959, voters approved consolidation and the newly merged Durango District student population grew from 2,992 to 3,442. A new seven-member board consisting of 4 members from the old Durango system and 3 members from the newly consolidated areas was voted into office on May 4.  
  
The end result is the "R" in 9R, --- Durango School District 9-Reorganized.  

A Modern School System  

The newly elected school board had many issues to address, including evicting squatters at the Elco (Bondad) School, obtaining new buses and developing more facilities. The maturing elementary school population was swelling the crowded junior high and some of the rural schools required attention. The Florida Mesa School needed more room, and the small schoolhouses at Sunnyside and in the Kline area were no longer adequate. Late in 1959, voters passed a $1,420,000 bond to address these issues, resulting in expansion at the Florida Mesa School, construction of the new Sunnyside School (built 1962), and construction of the Fort Lewis Mesa School (1961). A new junior high was built in 1961 at an approximate cost of $884,515. The school board named the school after Hoyt Miller who had served many years as the principal of Smiley Junior High School.  
  
With so much construction going on all at once, it is a wonder that Superintendent Canode was able to accomplish much else, but he did manage to deal with some interesting issues in the turbulent 1960's. For instance, in this coldest decade of the Cold War, a 1961 School board meeting included discussion among the Board members regarding whether to put "USSR Magazine" into the school libraries. The Board left the decision "...entirely up to the Superintendent". (Unfortunately, the minutes do not reveal Superintendent Canode's decision.)  
  
In 1960, Canode reported that the district operated at a cost of $293.15 per student and that only five "first class" schools in the state were cheaper, while 16 schools had similar rates and 74 schools were more expensive. Prior to 1960, the district relied on the treasurer of the School board and on the math abilities of the Superintendent to deal with finances. Canode hired the first business manager for the district and appointed an Assistant Supervisor in Charge of Curriculum.  
  
The San Juan Basin Health Unit worked with the Durango schools to establish a strong student health service. Under the guidance of local physician, Dr. Menard Murray, mental health services were available to students.  
  
A new superintendent, Elmo McKee, came from a similar position in Weld County in 1964. The hiring process used to select McKee was a radical departure from the old tradition where the school board had selected the candidates without additional input from the community. McKee was recommended by a community selection committee and approved by the board.  
  
One of McKee's challenges was a renewal of the failed kindergarten movement from 1951. A large contingency of parents crowded the school board meeting in 1964 to request kindergarten facilities. A citizens committee was dispatched to look at costs and impacts. Once again, the request failed.  
  
Teachers' annual salaries ranged from $4,800 for first year teachers with a bachelor degree to $8,624 for a teacher with 14 years of experience in the school district and a  Cultural Resource Planning  Page 11  
  
Durango School District 9R-The First 120 Years  masters degree. Roles in education appeared to be very rigidly defined, considering the district's advertisement of required qualifications for two principal positions and one assistant principal position in the high schools and junior highs in 1965. The school board minutes reflect that only after some persuading from board member Marguerite Paulek did the board agree to change the listed qualification of "Sex: male" to "Sex: male preferred".  
  
The building boom of the 1950s came to a halt in the 1960's. Growing pains were accommodated at the high school when the district's administration offices moved off of the school campus to occupy the Wallace Building in the 1100 block of Main Avenue.  
  
The district removed one of its facilities from school use when it closed the Animas City School in 1967. Although the district had attempted to negotiate with the adjacent property owners, nobody in the neighborhood around the old Animas City School was interested in selling their property. Without any room for expansion, the board decided to close the Animas City School in 1967, sending the children to Needham. The building was used for the Head Start program, as a maintenance facility and for storage until representatives of the La Plata County Historical Society negotiated a lease with the school board in 1976 to use the building as a museum. The school district transferred ownership of building to the historical society in 1979.  
  
Head Start was one of many programs developed during the tenure of Superintendent Ed Kutzleb. A Leadville native, Kutzleb received his education in Colorado and came to Durango from his position as the Assistant Superintendent in the South Bend, Indiana, school district. During his 20-year administration, the district addressed some of the major social changes of the era.  
  
Adult education and bilingual/bicultural programs received the district's support and development in the 1970's. Expanded programs for students with disabilities were also a major issue. Although the district had curricula for special needs students, most of the programs separated the students from the general student population or dealt with "home bound" instructors who taught in a pupil's home. Kutzleb's era saw the beginnings of "mainstreaming" students into the public school system. "Boy was that a battle...because it was so darn expensive," he recalled in a recent interview. "But once the momentum started there were so many parents who supported the effort and saw the need, that we were able to do it".  
  
Other activities reflecting the changing populace also occupied his time. In 1977, the school board decided to eliminate the hunting vacation that had been a local tradition in Durango. Relations between the schoolteachers and administration also became testy as the teachers considered unionization and other forms of organization. Teachers in 1975 had an average salary of $9,957, which the educators pointed out was substantially lower than the statewide average. The school board was faced with the difficult challenge of prioritizing facility and staff needs.  
  
The school district once again faced a growing population during the 1970's. A citizens advisory committee unsuccessfully advocated new facilities early in the decade, but as the needs became more obvious, a second group was formed to develop a needs assessment. A new high school was at the top of the list, followed by expansions to many of the elementary schools and long term planning for additional sites for elementary and junior high schools.  
  
In 1971 a bond for $4.4 million passed to allow construction of a new high school, expansions to Park, Riverview, Needham, Sunnyside, and Fort Lewis Mesa, and the purchase of two sites that would become Escalante and Animas Valley schools. The work at Park School included demolition of the original 1899 structure and additions to the more modern wings of the building.  
  
Five years after the bond was passed, the new high school was completed at a cost of $4,529,162. The school opened in 1976, while the district pondered what to do with the old high school. Echoing the federal programs of the years past, the Federal Public Works Administration granted the district a $350,000 grant to remodel the high school into administrative offices. Local designer, George King oversaw the work.  
  
A national economic downturn impacted Durango in the first half of the 1980s. Empty storefronts and high unemployment peaked in 1984, and the school district activities reflect this less prosperous period. No new schools were built in the 1980s. A few schools received additions in the late 1980's as the economy recovered. The district's bus garage was constructed in 1985.

As often is the case in tough economic times, a local group formed to address otherwise non-funded school needs. The group created the Durango Foundation for Educational Excellence, the second foundation created in Colorado to serve public schools. The Foundation's official start came in 1985, but it grew out of a 1982 memorial scholarship for Durango High School student John Putnam. The Foundation provides grants and scholarships to improve education quality within the district.

The 1980's ended on an upbeat note in 1989 with the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the first graduating class. High School students wrote articles about the last 100 years in the school district in a commemorative issue of the district's community newsletter, called the "Prideline", and a time capsule was buried in Buckley Park. With 3,831 students in the Durango Public Schools system, the district had come a long way from the 26 children in the initial petition to create a school district.

The challenges of the 1990's included many decisions about the district's facilities. Over long and sometimes tense sessions, the school board and the community debated the merits of old vs. new buildings. Mason School was closed in 1990 and the battle raged over whether Smiley could be retrofitted to modern school programs. Eventually, the issues were resolved, although slim majorities made the decisions. A bond issue was proposed in May 1992, to fund construction of Escalante and Animas Valley schools as well as to upgrade the district's computers and technological abilities. The $38.5 million issue failed by a close margin.

After much debate, the school board decided to try again. Five months later, when the issue appeared on the ballot, but it was divided into three questions. The two questions regarding funding for the facilities passed 3,456 to 3,063 and 3,451 to 3,233. The remaining question addressing technological support failed by about the same margin.

1993 saw the introduction of Charter Schools to the Durango system. Two schools, The Community of Learners and Excel, were approved under the charter definition and opened in 1994.

With construction of two new schools underway and the creation of two charter schools that requested use of the district facilities, the school board was faced with decisions about what to do with the Smiley and Mason buildings. After much debate, the school board decided the buildings should be sold. The City of Durango purchased the Mason property in 1995. It has been used as an activities center and as classrooms for the adult education center. The Smiley building was purchased by John and Charles Shaw and Lisa Bodwalk in 1998, and is a successful, privately run community-oriented arts facility. Both Escalante and Animas Valley schools were completed in 1994.

Mason Elementary School was named for Thomas Mason, a 30-year member of the Durango School board and County treasurer. Many people thought the school was named for Thomas's son, Walt, who served as the principal of Needham Elementary School for many years and was the interim Superintendent in 1967-1968. When the school was closed in 1990, Walt said, "My father never graduated from high school. He quit 2 weeks before graduation. As Board president he handed me my diploma in 1938. Ten years later, I handed him an honorary diploma from the rest of the board members."

The Masons represent a school system steeped in family traditions and community involvement. Even with an unprecedented number of new arrivals to west, Durango schools continue to build on a strong community identity. With more than 120 years of constant growth, the school system continues to recognize and draw upon the values of the community it educates.

The First 120 Years - Superintendents

1882-1885 | Eli E. Fox former mayor of Animas City, died of pneumonia while in office
1886 | B.R. Grass from the Lansing, Michigan school system
1888 | J.H. Smith from Rock Rapids, Iowa School system
1889-1894 | Thomas O. Baker former Durango schools teacher
1894 | J.A. Hancock degree from Stanford University
1897 | Charles E. Chadsey degree from Stanford University
1900-1903 | Edgar R. Downs from Denver school system
1903-1906 | George W. Gould former Telluride Superintendent
1906-1943 | 37 | Emory E. Smiley from Ironton, Ohio
1943-1952 | 9 | Elza Needham Former Durango High School Principal
1952-1964 | Willard Canode From Kemmerer, Wyoming school system
1964-1967 | Elmo McKee From Weld County, Colorado school system
1967-1968 | Walter Mason-interim superintendent, Durango schools principal
1968-1988 | 20 | Ed Kutzleb From Leadville, Colorado (from the South Bend, Indiana School system)
1988-1990 | Harvey Guest
1990-1991 | Jim Federico-interim superintendent, Durango schools maintenance supervisor
1991-1996 | Walt Jackson former assistant superintendent at Durango
1996-1998 | Gene Young
1999 | Joel Jones-interim superintendent, former president of Fort Lewis College
1999 | Mary Barter from the Long Island school system

District Buildings

Longfellow School 1882-1901 (burned down 12-21-01)

• Located between 9th and 10th Streets on the east side of East 5th Avenue

• Also known as "the High School", "the Southside School"

• Architect: J.H. Ernest Waters

• The Longfellow School was the first building constructed by the school district.

Whittier School 1886-mid 1950's (demolished)

• Located on the west side of Main Avenue in the 1900 block (where the Park building is today)

• Also known as "the Northside School"

• An election held on August 7, 1951 supported selling the building (56 for and 22 against) The building and associated property were sold in 1951-1952. I could not find the actual demolition date for the structure, but it probably occurred before 1955.

Central School

• 1893-1950 (burned down 3-19-1950)

• Located on 12th Street between East 3rd and East 4th Avenues (current site of the City of Durango's activity center-the old Mason Elementary school)

• Architect: J.J.Huddart

• Contractor: Ramsey

• This building served many functions, starting out as the high school, transformed into a junior high, and converted into an elementary school.

• Virginia Schoser taught at the elementary school and described it as "..

Administration Building 1916-1975 as a high school; 1975-2023 as administrative center

• Also known as Durango High School.

• Architect: Thomas MacLaren and Charles Thomas.

• Contractor: M.J. Kenney.

• Designed by well-known architects in the Classical Revival style, the building's high artistic values are embodied in the smooth brick walls with banded ground floor finish, corner quoins, and terra cotta trim. The high school is one of only two buildings in Durango with terra cotta ornamentation. The property is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places for its architectural value as well as its historic value as Durango's only public high school for 69 years.

• Converted into administrative offices in 1976.

• Sold to the City of Durango in May 2023

Durango Senior High School 1976

Florida Mesa Elementary School 1958

Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School 1961

• Architects: Atchison and Kloverstrom.

• Contractor: Teats Construction (HVAC contract to Root and Malarsie).

• Replaced the Red Mesa School.

Park Elementary School 1900-1973 (torn down) and 1956

• Original architect: Silas Smith.

• 1956 architect: Paul Atchison.

• The original Park School was torn down in 1973. Additional structures, built in 1956, remain and additions have been constructed to the 1956 building.

Riverview Elementary School 1956

• Architect: Paul Atchison.

• Riverview was built to accommodate the booming subdivision developments on the east edge of Durango and was annexed into the City after it was built.