West Je block party provides food, information and fun

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

It was de nitely time for an oldfashioned block party.

e West Je erson Elementary School end-of-the-year tradition on

May 12 brought out children and their parents, and the wet weather didn’t dampen their spirits as most of the vendor tables simply moved inside to the gymnasium.

Outside, children climbed inside an Elk Creek Fire Rescue engine, taking turns running the lights and sirens. Inside, children tried on reghter gear, looked at wild animal hides and played as parents learned more about activities and programs e board spent more than two hours on May 23 looking into a crystal ball, guratively speaking, as it pored over data from a variety of sources on district wants and needs. Board members are trying to get a better idea of what should be in its strategic plan for programs and facilities to o er in the next three to ve years.

No decisions have been made on speci c projects for the strategic plan or whether the rec district will ask voters for more property taxes in

SEE EPRD, P3 available this summer.

Principal Wendy Woodland said the block party was an event for families to learn about resources and summer activities available in the mountain community. e event o ered games and demonstrations for kids, food and lots of fun.

At tables were the Mountain Resource Center, Girl Scouts, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Lil All Stars summer camps, Resilience1220, Macaroni Kid, Peak Academy of Dance, Mountain Youth Rugby, Predator Football and more.

Woodland grilled hot dogs, greeting families as they stopped by to get dinner. is will be Woodland’s last block party, since she is leaving the school to travel around the United States for a year in an RV with her family.

Je co Public Schools has announced that Darby Brady, who had been principal at Shelton Elementary School in Golden and before that an assistant principal at e Bergens in Evergreen, will be the new principal.

Inside the gymnasium, Paul and Casey Todd helped their children, Charlotte, 5, and Elliot, 4, put on re ghting clothes and helmets.

“Elliot told me he wants to be a re ghter,” Casey explained, which made trying on the gear that much more important.

“We go to all events at West Je Elementary because they’re fun,” she added.

Shannon Konyndyk, the owner of Sojourn Books in Aspen Park, explained her backpack club to sixth graders and their parents. e club is an after-school program at the bookstore where students can play board games, do homework and hang out.

For younger children, Lil All Stars representatives explained their after-school programs and summer camps at the Indian Hills Community Center.

Jake Sonberg, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s district wildlife o cer handed out junior ranger badge stickers to children as they identied animal hides and horns. He said it was important to teach children and their parents about living with wildlife — how not to interact with wild animals.

“Kids love to touch the hides and get the badges,” he said. “I’m impressed how much (the children) know about animals.”

As kindergartner Decker Moseley identi ed a bear hide, mom Katie Moseley said her children love school activities while she loves community involvement.

Jill Ewald agreed.

“My kids love to go to school events,” Ewald said. “ ey look forward to it.” e board decided that its strategic-planning decisions should be based on six criteria: community support, scal responsibility and operational feasibility, caring for current facilities, sustainability, whether the project increases patron usage, and whether it ful lls longterm district goals.

November.

“My biggest question is cost and time and approach to take in terms of trying to address the needs to the public,” Eggers said. “We tried ve years ago to ask for it all at once,” referring to a failed bond ask in 2018.

“How do we analyze these projects vis-a-vis expense, and how do we create a timeline and a dollar timeline to create a convincing argument to the public?”

More gymnasium, aquatics space e survey of EPRD constituents showed they are interested in more aquatics, pickleball and tennis courts, another gymnasium and more community gathering space.

To hit most of those wishes, one idea being oated — with many questions still to be answered such as feasibility and cost — is closing the Wulf Recreation Center pool, which is 51 years old and would be very expensive to replace, and recon guring the entire building, including adding more gymnasium/ indoor court space. en, the district would expand the aquatics area at the Buchanan Park Recreation Center, which district sta said would be easier to operate with all aquatics programs in one place. e board doesn’t know whether voters would allow it to keep the money from a bond that will be paid o in 2025, what could be done with that money and how long it would take to remodel the Wulf Rec Center. e board also doesn’t know whether voters would pay for an expansion at Buchanan.

Board members brought up the uncertainty with property taxes after assessments increased substantially. ey said that needed to be taken into consideration as they determine whether to put questions on the November ballot.

“One improvement begets the other,” board President Peter Eggers said. “If we (make changes at one rec center), then we automatically set up for improvements at the other rec center. Once we get the ball rolling, the projects will get larger and larger like a snowball. We need to be conscious of the direction we take and the implications of that direction.”

Executive Director Cory Vander Veen noted that the district needed to be scally responsible in what it does and be mindful of what the community will support.

Board member Don Rosenthal said if the district developed a renovation plan at Wulf, “you’d be surprised at how much utilization we could get out of that building. I think it’s all there in front of us.” Monty Estis, who served on the board for seven years but was termlimited, asked whether a two-stage approach might be the best way to go: asking to keep the money from the paid-o bond rst and then asking for additional funds.