Hi Gunnison Watershed School District Community!

Welcome to the GWSD interactive facilities design website created in collaboration with RTA Architects. Knowing that we are pushing the boundaries of obsolescence and space in our current facilities, we contracted with RTA for this project in November of 2019. We convened Design Advisory Teams at each campus: Crested Butte Community School, Gunnison Community School, Gunnison High School, and Lake School. These teams included a total of over 60 community members, parents, faculty, and staff, and altogether, we held 18 input sessions. This website demonstrates what our students need from their facilities, and conceptual designs that capture those ideas.

Citizens, we recognize the timing of this is not ideal. We know the cost estimates are shocking. We’ve struggled with these realities ourselves. The upheaval of the pandemic this year has created a new framework with which to examine all of our lives. The fact is that our current facilities are not sustainable. The Colorado Department of Education identified over $37 million worth of deferred maintenance needs for our district in 2018. Enrollment growth in the north end of the valley has averaged over 24 students per year for the past decade and the Crested Butte Community School is over its 750 student capacity with 800 students enrolled in 2020-2021. Our Gunnison schools require safety improvements, the ability to continue to develop our Career and Technical Education programs, and the need to be ready for enrollment increases with developments like Gunnison Rising on the horizon.

Our process has been to assimilate the impact of the financial impacts through close, careful examination of all the circumstances surrounding our facilities. Please take the time to do the same. Visit and revisit this site as many times as you like. Write down your questions. Breathe deeply and think about the big picture. This is not an easy decision, nor one taken lightly, and we honor your input as we move forward.

The Gunnison Watershed School District has been a leader in Colorado during the COVID pandemic by offering in-person classes since the first day of school this school year. We have also provided an online learning option for families who have needed that. Careful planning and fiscal conservatism have maintained a healthy school environment despite our district’s loss of nearly $20 million in funding due to the state negative factor over the past decade.

The people in this community have come together - employees, volunteers, board and committee members, parents, children - to create an education system that thrives despite all obstacles. This is a wonderful place to live. We are so very grateful for all of you, and hope we can continue on with this culture of supported and effective education for our children.

Courtney Fullmer, President
Gunnison Watershed School District Board of Education

Leslie Nichols, Ed.D., Superintendent
Gunnison Watershed School District

Project Overview

Gunnison Watershed School District spans nearly 3,000 square miles and includes the communities of Gunnison and Crested Butte. The district serves over 2,100 students and is ever-growing. In February 2019, Gunnison Watershed School District adopted a Facility Master Plan that was a collaborative effort between community stakeholders and RTA Architects. The Master Plan identified existing facility conditions, opportunities within educational programs, and past and future enrollment projections. In continuation of this work, Gunnison Watershed School District retained RTA Architects to provide the school district with site-based conceptual design solutions that meet the needs defined in the Master Plan and provide preliminary cost estimates.

Design Objectives

Improvement Project Interactive Maps 

The content of all documents was created in collaboration with the design team and a specially convened Design Advisory Groups (DAG). Four DAG groups were formed, one for each of the four District Facilities, and were comprised of members of the community, parents, and school district employees. The DAG groups met five times since January 2020. This group provided context, creative input, and critical feedback to formulate the design solutions tailored to the needs of each individual school. The DAG groups’ efforts were invaluable to the process of defining project priorities for sustainable growth within the school buildings.

Thank you to the following stakeholders for your time and commitment to the DAG Process;

Additional Links / Information