Construction underway for 70,000 square-foot expansion on Chavez Huerta campus

Chavez Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy broke ground on a 70,000 square-foot expansion of its Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School building at a ceremony held Friday, Feb. 3, in the Ersilia Cruz Middle School gymnasium.

The expansion consists of a “middle school expansion” attached to the existing high school building that will include 20 classrooms, a theater area, dining space and a kitchen for Ersilia Cruz Middle School students. The project also will add 13 classrooms for Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School students.

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"A lot of you know the history of how we came to be and why this is a big deal for us on the West Side of Pueblo— a community that has been neglected for a long time in terms of services," interim president Richard Duran said during the construction groundbreaking.

Once construction is completed in spring 2024, modular classroom buildings will no longer be necessary on the Chavez Huerta campus. Students have been attending classes in modulars since the school was founded in 2000. Pueblo County Commissioner Garrison Ortiz, a 2009 graduate of Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School, remembers his alma mater being stigmatized as "the modular high school" by peers.

"This school has always had a little bit of a chip on its shoulder and that's OK, because I think that's exactly who we are and I think that's why we are so darn successful ... getting rid of those modulars means a lot to everyone here in this room, but it sure means a heck of a lot to me as a previous student," Ortiz said during the ceremony.

Construction of the expansion is a part of $35 million project that also includes construction of a "transitional" middle school building. Almost $30 million is paid for through the Colorado Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant— an annual competitive grant program through the Colorado Department of Education.

Chavez Huerta had initially applied for BEST grant funding during the 2020-21 fiscal year, but was not awarded until the following year due to a lack of adequate funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Chavez Huerta's grant application summary.

The transitional middle school building was completed in 2022 and will serve Ersilia Cruz Middle School students until completion of the 20-classroom middle school expansion to the current Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School building. Following completion of the middle school expansion, the transitional middle school building will become the permanent Cesar Chavez Academy elementary school building.

Prior to construction of the transitional middle school building, Ersilia Cruz Middle School students were crossing 18th street daily to attend classes at one of nine on-campus buildings. Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School consisted of a 10-classroom modular building, a 2-classroom modular building and five permanent classrooms inside the Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School building.

"All ECMS students are exposed daily to unsafe environmental factors resulting from the non-integrated modular campus. Daily hazards include the potential of a lockdown resulting from a patient escaping the State Hospital, non-invited students from other D60 campuses, as well as inclement weather issues ... All DHPD (sic) students are exposed daily as the result of not having a fully contained high school campus," according to the application.

In addition to the $30 million BEST grant, Chavez Huerta also received $250,000 from the Denver Broncos, NFL Foundation and Local Initiatives Support Corp. for a synthetic turf field. During the groundbreaking ceremony, Duran said the field will not only be utilized by the school's athletic programs but the growing West Side community as a whole.

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Two subdivisions — Pikes Peak Park and Westgate Chamberlain — are anticipated to grow the West Side and Chavez Huerta's student population in coming years. The Westgate Chamberlain subdivision will feature about 440 houses along West 18th Street between Perry Avenue and Sun Mountain Boulevard west of the Chavez Huerta campus.

Pikes Peak Park, a mixed-use subdivision, will be connected to the Chavez Huerta campus through an extension of Sun Mountain Boulevard from West 24th Street to West 31st Street. Connectivity to the West Side and the Chavez Huerta campus also is expected through the construction of Medal of Honor Boulevard: a county project connecting West 24th Street with Pueblo West.

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.