Some students start a new year in old Jefferson County school buildings

LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- The first day of school at Kendrick Lakes Elementary School in Jefferson County is marked with smiles, excitement to learn and some of those first day jitters.

But, this new school year for students may be one of the last in the aging building.

Kendrick Lakes along with several other school buildings are set to be torn down and rebuilt elsewhere on the properties if a $535 million bond issue goes through in November.

"The voters in JeffCo realize that we have a significant investment in the 154 facilities that we have in order to sustain the property values that we have and provide a quality education as JeffCo's done for 60 years, we need to make sure we have the facilities that can do that," said Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Dan McMinimee.

The money would pay for new schools, wide-spread renovations across this 86,000 student district, along with a $33 million mill levy override to help pay for non-capital costs.

"We have some significant needs up in the northwest area for seats with the growth that's going on there, we're seeing a resurgence in some of our neighborhoods as neighborhoods turn over where we need seats in those schools," said McMinimee.

McMinimee said highlighting the need for more money that the state isn’t giving them, in part, is the fact that of the 239 portable buildings, five were built after 1988.