A significant milestone for rural education collaboratives, Fort Lewis College, Pueblo Community College Southwest and five regional school districts have received $3.6 million in state funds through the state’s RISE grant program for a partnership to pool resources to build stronger educational pathways for students interested in environmental sciences and building trades.

Lyra supported the collaboration of local partners in developing the winning funding proposal.

The approach calls for sharing resources across rural school districts – everything from instructors to equipment and buildings. Durango School District 9-R, Bayfield Public School District, Ignacio School District, Silverton Schools and the Archuleta School District are initial members of the collaborative.

High school students in the school districts will have access to building trades certificate programs and associate degrees offered at Pueblo Community College and classes and research opportunities in environmental sciences – studies in areas such as water quality, soil quality, pollution mitigation and others – at Fort Lewis College.

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The school districts decided to add a concentration in environmental sciences given strong student interest and due to the high regional demand for environmental and green skills. 

This initiative reflects a forward-looking approach to address the evolving needs of the education sector and the employment market in Southwest Colorado.

“The whole idea was: How do we, as small districts, come together to ensure shared services and collaborations to benefit student outcomes? How do we come together as the educational institutions in the region, that maybe have limited services because of our rural nature, and pool services to best serve students?” 

Tom Stritikus, Fort Lewis College President

Besides bolstering curriculum in building trades and environmental sciences, the collaborative will create a nonprofit entity, the Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative, Lyra’s first Climatarium hub, governed by the school district and higher education partners that can apply for grants and other philanthropic gifts and manage the shared education pathways work.

‍Fort Lewis College is serving as the fiscal agent for the RISE grant obtained from the state.

Read the full article in the Durango Herald here.