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Rico Elementary Begins School Year With Only Seven Students

Austin Cope
/
KSJD
Lockers assigned to each of Rico School's four elementary students

Numbers at the Rico Elementary School have fallen significantly within the past three years, according to counts from the Dolores County School District, Re-2J. In 2014 the school had 20 students, then 17 students last year, and then seven this year. Preschool teacher Rebecca Pugh called that ten-student drop “this year’s mass exodus.”

Pugh said the decline might be linked to Rico parents finding jobs in Telluride and then enrolling their kids in school there. She said although Rico has seen population growth within the past few years, few of the newcomers have children. And when one family leaves town, it can have a big impact -- she said a family with four children moved away recently, in large part because the school was too small.

The Re-2J School Board has been very supportive of the Rico School over the years, she said, and last year Dolores County voters passed a mill levy override to support their schools, which also include an elementary, middle, and high school in Dove Creek. So this year, the Rico School will have enough funding.

But long-term, Pugh said it’s a chicken-or egg question. “Are people going to come and then fill the school, or are people going to come because there’s a thriving school?” she wondered.  

That’s the question that will face Rico Elementary, and the town of Rico in general, in the coming years.

The Dolores County School Board will have their yearly Rico meeting on Wednesday evening, starting at 7pm in the Rico Town Hall. Their agenda consists of routine items of business, and Pugh said she will mention the low enrollment during her report.

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