Miller Middle School students, staff move into new multi-million dollar building – The Durango Herald

The project is expected to be fully completed in spring 2025.

After a month of delay, students and staff at Miller Middle School finally celebrated the long-awaited move into their new school building on Tuesday.

Miller students filled the new dual-purpose auditorium in the cafeteria where Principal Vernadette Norman spoke to them for the first time in the new building. Teachers escorted the middle schoolers into the new building and made sure they were acclimated.

The move-in of students and staff was delayed due to a fire that broke out at the construction site in July, causing more than $150,000 worth of damage to electrical equipment related to the building.

Investigations by the Durango Fire Protection District are inconclusive as to the cause of the fire, but district officials suspect arson played a role because of previous incidents of vandalism at the construction site.

Chris Coleman, director of operations for Durango School District 9-R, said the final cost of the new building is estimated at $55 million to $58 million. The district originally said the building would cost about $45 million, but Coleman said inflation in construction costs has driven up the final price tag.

Funding for the new building comes from the 4A bond issue, which voters approved in 2020, allocating $90 million to fund improvements to in-district and out-of-district charter schools.

Miller’s opening comes just before the November vote on a district bond initiative that seeks $150 million for improvements, including a new school in Three Springs.

The 2024 bond would cost a homeowner about $14 per month, or $167 per year, for a home valued at $500,000.

It was an unconventional start to the school year for Miller and Durango High School students, who had to share space at Durango High School and the Impact Career Innovation Center for the first month of the year.

“They were the most resilient people,” Norman said of how the students handled the situation. “They stepped in and did their jobs. They encouraged us to let go of some of the anxiety and angst that we were feeling.”

The building includes a new gymnasium on the northwest side of the building that includes two basketball courts with a drop-down partition and a weight room. Miller has seven sports teams in addition to its standard physical education classes.

Mike Jaramillo, Miller’s athletic director and physical education teacher, was thrilled with the new facility. Miller previously set up a temporary weight room in the cafeteria. Now, the weight room is equipped with two weight racks, a full set of dumbbells, a television monitor and electric exercise sleds that can vary the resistance depending on the setting.

“I grew up in Durango and attended Smiley,” Jaramillo said. “I competed in this building (the original Miller building) and now to teach here in this new facility is just amazing.”

Jaramillo was part of the design team for the new school building.

Coleman noted that the cafeteria’s temporary weight room generated significant noise pollution near the former administrative offices due to loud music.

The new building and renovations to the east wing will include collaborative classrooms, where students in the same grade and subject can work together in larger groups.

The new collaborative designs follow trends at other new school buildings such as Animas High School and the Impact Career Innovation Center.

Classes are divided into “pods” based on subject and grade level, with a common area where students can collaborate on group projects in what the district describes as a more professional setting.

“It’s kind of the new model of learning,” Coleman said. “It’s a more collaborative space. That’s why all the furniture itself is on casters and can be moved around. You have the option of bringing in big tables or breaking them out into individual group sessions.”

As experiential learning and careers in technical education gain popularity in lower secondary education levels, the new building includes a makerspace on the south side of the building.

The makerspace trend has been on the rise in recent years as teachers increasingly embrace project-based and experiential learning. In 2022, a makerspace was added to the new Mountain Middle School building, and the same feature was included in the new Animas High School building. Last year, Impact also incorporated a makerspace when it opened at Durango High School.

In addition to the new building, the district renovated the newer portion of the old school building, built in 2004, located in the east wing. The renovation included an elevated bridge that connects the new building to the older part of the school.

Most of the work done on the school’s existing infrastructure was cosmetic, such as replacing brick interiors with white-painted walls and adding additional windows in classrooms.

The oldest part of the building houses all sixth and seventh grade classes.

On Monday, teachers toured the building to familiarize themselves with its layout, which allowed them to help students adjust to Tuesday’s major changes.

“Now we have a new chance and some teachers are looking forward to it because it will reset some of those standards,” Norman said of the school’s first official day in its new classrooms.

Miller’s sophomore principal said students, even middle school-aged students, are proud to have a new facility and it helps give them a sense of responsibility.

“When they’re in a new, exciting, inspiring place, it makes them want to do more,” Norman said.

Construction continues on the remainder of the project, which is expected to be completed in spring 2025. Coleman said demolition of the west wing of the former Miller Middle School building began three days ago.

The school’s new soccer field will be moved to this area, and a dedicated bus drop-off area will be located to the west of the newly renovated building, near the new soccer field.

There will be a path leading to the raised bridge where students will be able to enter the school.

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