Here’s a story that warms the heart, even if it’s about weathering the cold.
The can-do resiliency of the children and teachers at the K-12 school in the tiny town of Silverton, who went all winter in classrooms so cold the ink sometimes wouldn’t flow from their pens, is remarkable.
By bundling up and making do, the Silverton kids ought to remind us in these days of government bailouts and hand-holding that we can overcome an awful lot — even unheated bathrooms when the mercury drops to 22 below zero.
Silverton’s story is an extreme example, but many smaller Colorado districts struggle with outdated structures. A statehouse bill passed last year will help.
After their 60-year-old coal-fired furnace gave up the ghost in November, the town of 500 perched among the San Juans considered its options. Busing the 55 students to other schools over three chronically snowed-out mountain passes didn’t make sense, according to The Post’s Nancy Lofholm. Neither did an improvised replacement, as the pipes are wrapped in old asbestos insulation. There weren’t any other buildings large enough to replace the 98- year-old, three-story brick building.
Parents brought in space heaters. The local hardware store donated all it had in stock. Kids and teachers wore snow pants, extra sweaters, down coats, hats and scarves.
Ultimately, garage heaters were hauled in, but this created another problem: All those electric space heaters kept throwing switches. Teachers had to do without heat in order to power computers.
Yet fourth- and fifth-grade teacher Jennifer Ross shrugged this off, saying, “It didn’t disrupt anything.” Parent Sharon Zimmerman just called the lack of heat “a bummer.”
Touting a bill last year to raise up to $1 billion in coming years to refurbish schools, then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff wrote in these pages about schools with collapsing ceilings and floors, and a 1914 Mesa County school with heating so wimpy the floorboards near the heater were worn down by students huddling for warmth. The so-called Building Excellent Schools Today program announced this month it was funding 11 school projects, including five brand new schools in the San Luis Valley, with about $100 million in the next two years.
The money comes from leveraging revenue from the School Trust Lands and some contributions from local districts.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Education and the Governor’s Energy Office are helping Silverton install a new, $1 million heating system the district hopes will be more environmentally friendly than that old coal boiler.
Silverton school’s motto is “Connecting Learning to Life,” and that’s just what the town did this winter.
The rest of us can learn from their example.
