RE-1 Valley’s persistence pays off with proposed $8.4 million BEST grant

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

RE-1 Valley gets a BEST grant

Let’s turn to something local (for me at least): per the article linked first below, RE-1 Valley school district got their long sought-after BEST grant.

Before some detail on that, let’s back up a step. In case you weren’t familiar, BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) grants are money that comes from the state to be used primarily to, quoting their webpage linked second below, “… resolve health, safety, and security issues in Colorado public schools.”

It is a competitive grant program, meaning schools from across the state compete for the grants in any given yearly cycle.

As a quick side note (more available at the BEST webpage) since it’s been a topic on this page multiple times, BEST grant money comes largely from the State Land Board leasing revenues. That means oil/gas extraction (what little is still allowed on state lands anyways!), grazing, hunting/fishing, and recreation revenues all go to help fund school construction.

Turning back to RE-1 Valley, according to the article the district (after losing the first round) came back to win an approximately $8.4 million grant.

I’m not entirely sure of the process, but from what I can gather in the article, the list of BEST awardees will be up for final approval (a formality?) at the June meeting of the State Board of Education. When finalized, the money comes to RE-1 Valley.

From the article I gather also that the RE-1 Valley Board of Education has already got some feelers out there regarding what they want to do with the money.

I am the parent of a young one that goes to RE-1 Valley. Thus far, as a father and a teacher, I’ve been pretty impressed by what I’ve seen of RE-1 Valley. They’re not perfect, but I think they’re being good stewards of what they have, and the rank and file people in the district I’ve dealt with strike me as engaged in their jobs and wanting to help students.

Rural schools tend to take a backseat to others, for a number of reasons. Parents of students out here, however, including myself, don’t see our young ones as being second-rate.

I know that this money would help our schools better serve our students. It is a good complement to the bond issue that voters passed in 2025.

I hope you join me in helping make sure it gets here and is used well. Toward that end, I have a couple ways for you to get involved should you want to. The State Board of Education meeting will be June 10 and it looks like the BEST grants are up for review as agenda item #16. If you wanted to help make sure the grant got approved, you can sign up to speak at the meeting via that site, or you can send your comments to:

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 303-908-4580

I myself chose to send an email since my teaching schedule sometimes makes it hard to testify.

With regard to how the money is used, that comment would go to the RE-1 Valley School Board. Their contact info is in the fourth link below, as is the schedule of their meetings.

I am thinking I will update this story after contacting the board about (among other things) the planned uses for the BEST grant. Keep your eyes open for that.

https://www.journal-advocate.com/2026/05/21/re-1-valley-school-district-awarded-best-grant/
https://ed.cde.state.co.us/capitalconstruction/best
https://cde-state.community.diligentoneplatform.com/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=581
https://www.re1valleyschools.org/page/meet-the-board-2

Dear God yes, the Governor’s Office of Information Technology needs a reset!

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but one of the things on my list to do was to catch the Governor’s Office of Information Technology, OIT, at their SMART hearing and voice my (negative) opinion about their lack of performance. Didn’t end up making it this year because I wasn’t watching the committee calendar early enough.

The whole reason for trying was I noticed ongoing issues when trying to use state computer programs (mostly the TOPS expense reports). I tried multiple times through forms and direct emails to get ahold of someone down at OIT, to no avail.

Per the Sun article linked first below, apparently I’m not the only one who’s had issues. Apparently both citizens and state departments are quite dissatisfied.

This poor and chaotic performance puts OIT in the good company of other executive branch departments making a complete hash of the work assigned them.**

The article has a fair bit of history and context in it, both of which you can also get straight from the horse’s mouth in the OIT “About Us” page linked second below. There is (in both) the background of OIT, but also plenty about the “strategic reset” the department has planned.

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.