Dear Salida Schools Community,

Salida Schools had another great start to the year. We are fully staffed with amazing humans who are laser focused on helping students grow this year. For over a decade our community schools have scored in the top 10% of districts in the state. However, success is determined by individual stories. Success for our staff is to know each student by name and by need, ensuring that every student is connected to a trusted adult.  That passion for individual success has allowed us to be one of the best districts in the state year after year.

Salida Schools continues to innovate, realizing more grants than any other rural district. For example, Xcel Energy gave the District 1.4 million dollars to bring online more electric buses that can be plugged into the school for backup energy, innovating new solutions to bolster the electric grid. 

The District continues to maintain our buildings. The District replaced the majority of building automation systems that control the HVAC system–saving over $600,000 from original bids. The District replaced almost all of the lighting fixtures to move to more cost efficient and environmentally friendly LED bulbs, again saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by innovating with a local company.  The District continued to maintain the stadium track. That project was planned for and funds were in place for when the preventative maintenance was due. The teams also replaced aging kitchen equipment and remodeled special education classrooms to be sure our facilities were still on point for our kids’ needs. We also added a new climbing wall to the middle school to improve physical education opportunities. We worked with CMC to replace aging auto shop lifts as we continue our commitment to trades education.

The District again made a significant investment in teacher pay this year, and we will continue to pursue that goal of supporting our staff to not only work in our community, but also live in our community. Teacher pay has increased over 40% in the last decade. Our staff continue to self-report increased positivity in working within the schools, with less than 6% responding unfavorably and less than 4% considering leaving. 

The School Board is expressing concern about our community’s presentation of substance abuse to children. Our community reports higher use at younger ages than the nation, state and other mountain communities. In partnership with many other organizations the School Board invites you to read the Addiction Inoculation by Jessica Lahey as a conversation starter. We all need to reflect on how we model the use of alcohol and other substances to teens. This is the number one safety risk to teenagers, and our community is out of balance. 

Thank you for your trust in our teams. From the board room to the classroom we are committed to an excellent and stable educational system that ensures our students can compete after graduation. 

Respectfully,

Dr. D. Blackburn
Superintendent, Salida Schools