montrose press - Colorado Municipal League

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$1.50฀•฀SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2015
Library offers
chance to read
to dogs. Page A12
Montrose Youth Council
uses grant to fight drug
use. Page A8
Sizing up school
district candidates
Potential supers have
wide range of experience
BY KATIE LANGFORD
DAILY PRESS STAFF WRITER
Three candidates vying for the Montrose County
School District superintendent position will visit
Montrose this week and tour the city before they
are interviewed by community committees and the
school board.
The candidates represent a broad range of experience and skills. Pending school board approval, one
of them will take up the helm as MCSD’s superintendent in July.
Brent Curtice, superintendent
of Moffat County School District,
said the most pressing issue on
his mind regarding the Montrose
County School District is building
relationships.
“The most important thing I’m
about is culture, climate and deep relationships,” Curtice said. “I really
believe that’s our part in the whole
Curtice
community. It’s about a (culture that
is) welcoming, positive, passionate, transparent and
honest.”
Curtice started his career as a teacher and coach
in Jackson, Wyo., in 1982. He then worked in the
Delta County School District as a teacher and athletic director in Hotchkiss from 1987 to 1995 and as an
administrator in Paonia from 1995 to 2011. Curtice
became assistant superintendent of Moffat County
School District in 2011 and was promoted to superintendent in 2014.
“It is a passion of mine to be a superintendent,
and to be in Montrose, which is one of the elite
school districts in the state … it would be an honor
to be a part of that system and to grow and become a
part of that community,” he said.
Curtice said he has the qualifications necessary to
tackle the school district’s financial struggles.
“We have to be creative and collaborate together to
build a future,” he said. “I have a lot of background
in that area about how we move forward together.”
Todd Markley, assistant superintendent of Delta County School District,
said he already considers Montrose
his home.
“I was born in Montrose, I lived all
my life in Olathe and I have family
that lives here,” Markley said.
“When the job came up, we just
thought it was time to go home.”
Markley started in education as a
Markley
teacher in Montrose County School
District in 1987 and was promoted to assistant principal at Centennial Middle School in 1995, then to
principal in 1998.
He left Montrose to work in Delta County School
District as the principal of Cedaredge Middle School
in 2000, started as principal of Cedaredge High
School in 2010 and has served as assistant superintendent for Delta County since June 2013.
“I’ve got a wide range of experience working in
two different districts and I’ve seen the strengths
and weaknesses of both, and because of that I know
how to make it a more effective district,” Markley
said.
“I’m committed to the community where I work,
committed to the youth and programs, to being visible and approachable. I’m totally involved and committed to community efforts.”
Because of his previous experience in the
Montrose County School District, Markley said he
knows several people on the community interview
committees.
“I hope it’s not an advantage. I just want to bring
what I bring and to know that I’m the best I can be
for the job,” Markley said.
Stephen Schiell, district administrator of Amery School District in
Wisconsin, said he’s committed to settling down in Montrose if he gets the
job.
“I’ve never lived more than a mile
from my office,” Schiell said. “I’m
very much involved with activities
and events, and being a part of the
community is very important.”
Schiell
Schiell started teaching in
Thornton, Colo. in 1977 before moving to Brush to
work as an assistant principal in 1986. He was a
high school principal in Durand, Wisc., from 1989
to 1999, when he was promoted to district administrator (Wisconsin’s equivalent of a superintendent)
in Manawa, Wisc. He began his current position in
Amery in 2001.
“Fourteen years in one place as superintendent
when the average is three to four years speaks loudly,” he said. “I hope to come to Montrose and do that
too, come there for many, many years.”
Schiell said his duties as superintendent centered
on making sure students are successful.
“What I do is not worth my effort if it’s not about
our students,” Schiell said. “Providing an environment where students can be successful — that’s defined by them, not by policies or state standards. It
truly is about the whole child, the individual child
— meeting and providing and making sure they are
successful.”
Community members and district staff can meet
superintendent candidates at an open house from 4
p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 26 in the MCSD board room
at 930 Colorado Ave. in Montrose.
Katie Langford can be reached at 252-7038 or at [email protected].
INDEX
CALENDAR . . . . . A2
OBITUARIES . . . . A4
OPINION . . . . . . . A9
COMICS . . A10,C1-4
MEETINGS. . . . . A11
NATION. . . . . . . A12
Family fun
The 10th annual Hang with Dad event filled the
Montrose County Fairgrounds with laughing children
and many smiling parents Saturday. The fatherhood
event, which encourages fathers to be active in their
children’s lives, featured a variety of games, arts and
crafts table and other activities.The climbing wall and
human foosball were popular destinations, although
the two dunk tanks became a popular destination as
the temperature quickly rose. Above: Chloe Dunsing, 6,
made it to the top in her multiple trips up the climbing
wall Saturday at the Hang with Dad event. At left:
Brandon Flores, left, from Delta and Elijah Avila, from
Olathe, play some one-on-one during the Hang with
Dad event Saturday. Below: Joaquin Trujillo waits as he
receives an intricate face-painting at Saturday’s Hang
with Dad event at the Montrose County Fairgrounds.
(Photos by Justin Joiner/Daily Press)
School district budget
deficit at $1 million
May have to cut staff in 2016-2017
BY KATIE LANGFORD
DAILY PRESS STAFF WRITER
Montrose County School District’s proposed 20152016 budget reflects more than a $1 million-spending
deficit for the third straight year, the result of paying for ongoing expenses with one-time funding, district CFO Karin Slater said.
For the past two years, the district has paid for
increased expenses — mostly salary raises — with
money that was set aside in the 2011-2012 school year
for state spending cuts that never came.
This is the last year the district’s financial reserves can support the deficit, Slater said, which
means in the 2016-2017 school year, there will have to
2015-2016 proposed annual budget
General fund spending: $42.5 million
General fund revenue: $41.3 million
2015-2016 predicted deficit: $1,163,205
2014-2015 deficit: $1,408,745
be changes.
“I’ve been nervous about this ever since we did it,”
Slater said. “It’s not sound fiscal policy to commit to
ongoing expenses with one-time money, which is basically what this was. Once you put it in savings and
you spend your savings, it’s gone.”
See BUDGET page A13
City manager Bell elected
vice president of CML
Process should lead to president’s role in 2016-17
BY ALAN LEWIS GERSTENECKER
DAILY PRESS NEWS EDITOR
Montrose City Manager Bill
Bell, just back from the threeday Colorado Municipal League
Conference in Breckenridge, is
the newly elected vice president
of the group and sees that duty
as a continuation of those who
served before him.
“I’m vice president of the
CML,” Bell said, explaining his
term will take him to June 2016.
SPORTS . . . . . . 15,16
FOCUS. . . . . . . . B1-3
CLASSIFIEDS . . . B4-7
“I’m also president-elect of the
state City and County Managers
Association. We held our meeting
up there as well.”
Bell said the Montrose City
Council prefers an active city
manager.
“So, council asked me to do the
CML stuff when I first came, because (past councilor and past
CML board member) Gail Marvel
was on the CML board. And, we
have a long history in Montrose
of serving the Municipal League.
Tricia Dickenson (was) past
COMMUNITY . B8-10
president of the CML when she
was mayor. … Montrose has been
seen as a CML leader on the
Western Slope for a very long
time. It’s part of what’s exciting
about being in Montrose, because
we’re a leader in lots of different
areas.”
Other Montrose city officials
to serve as CML president include Greg Clifton, now Telluride
city manager, who was both the
Montrose city manager and attorney at the same time. Also, John
Kappa, former Montrose city
Published for the Uncompahgre Valley
and Larry Phillips of Olathe
See BELL page A3
LOCAL
MONTROSE DAILY PRESS
SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2015
A3
BELL
attorney, served as president of the CML. Bell, who
just completed his term as secretary-treasurer, is in
line to serve as CML president for 2016-17.
In addition to Bell, Assistant City Manager Rob
Joseph attended the conference, as did city councilors and City Clerk Lisa DelPiccolo.
“We had our whole team there,” Bell said. “The last
four years almost all of our whole team was there.”
Bell said it makes good sense for city councilors, the mayor and the city clerk to attend the CML
conference because of training and educational
sessions.
“There was a lot of education on various aspects
of governance,” Bell said. “There were legal tracts,
a manager’s tract, a newly elected officials tract, a
small-town, big-town tract. … (There were) a wide
variety of break-out sessions. Some of the highlights were on broadband. I spoke on a panel for local broadband initiatives and public-private partnerships,” he said.
Broadband continues to be the most-discussed topics among city managers and city officials who attended the 260-plus city conference, he said.
“Right now, what we’re seeing as the No. 1 priority for communities in Colorado is broadband,”
Bell said. “Creating ubiquitous access to broadband where everyone is on the same playing field.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re the town of Olathe
or the city of Denver, you should still have the same
access to high-speed Internet so you have the same
chance at having good business.”
Bell said the broadband topic has dominated for
the last 18 months at the CML conferences.
“It’s all you hear about — broadband,” he said.
“Longmont was the leader. Centennial, Cortez. Then
we came in. We were the first five or six doing this,
and now lots of towns are doing the exemption elections to exempt themselves from Senate Bill 152, so
that’s the hottest thing right now.”
Bell said as he makes his way into the presidency,
he plans to get involved in helping answer communities’ questions.
Bell said the research aspect of CML has been discussed, but “it’s been sort of disorganized.”
“If an elected official calls CML and says, ‘I have
this problem. What do you think about it? What can
I do?’ (The CML will) now will research it. And, if
they have enough city officials calling about it — like
broadband or marijuana issues — they’ll actually
research it with their attorneys and lobbying staff.
They’ll put out a white paper, five to 10 pages on what
the best practices are in this particular area.”
As the newly elected chairman of the Research
Committee, Bell said he plans to query municipalities around the state and find out what communities
want researched and what the best practices are for
dealing with those tasks.
“The example I put out, was a couple of years ago,
when we were going to performance-based pay,” he
said. “Well, if you’ve never done it, you don’t know
what the best practices are. You either make it up
and hope that’s the best practice, or you do your duediligence and study all other kinds of cities.”
So, in Montrose, Bell and the HR department spent
days researching best practices for pay for performance in and out of Colorado.
“Then we went to conferences to learn about it
and called HR departments about it,” Bell said. “We
found out that Wheat Ridge and Windsor and Fort
Collins were the leaders in pay for performance, and
then we went outside to Utah and some places. And
if you can find out about pay for performance and
save the individual municipalities (research costs),
they can research nationally and find out really what
XNLV214757
FROM PAGE A1
Montrose City Manager Bill Bell is the newly elected vice
president of the Colorado Municipal League Conference.
(Alan Lewis Gerstenecker/Daily Press)
is the best three practices as well as finding out what
the pitfalls may be, things to avoid. This can be much
more efficient than having each municipality research it on its own. I think this is going to be a huge
help.”
Bell was asked whether his elections and appointments outside of his Montrose city manager’s duties
detract from serving the people of Montrose.
“This doesn’t take a lot of time,” Bell said. “It’s a
one meeting a month (commitment). We do take a
break, once in the winter and once in the summer.
Travel over to Denver, do the meetings.”
Bell said the CML for all its duties, keeps a watchful eye out for communities.
“So, CML does a lot of lobbying — that’s their
primary function — on behalf of cities and towns
around the state,” he said. “So, if we see legislation
that comes through that’s going to limit local control and give it to the state Legislature and not here
like it should be, CML will fight that. Yes, it’s a lot for
home-rule. That’s the No. 1 focus of CML, is to keep
home-rule. So, we have a lobbying staff and lawyers
who work at the capitol quite a bit.”
Bell said working with the current city council has
been easier than with others.
“Oh, I’ve said publicly and to lots of people this is
the best council I’ve ever had,” Bell said. “Ever in 14
years. The reason being, this council is made up of
professionals. We have a mixture of engineers (Bob
Nicholson), auditors (Kathy Ellis), teachers (Judy
Ann Files). … Rex (Swanson) was in the insurance
industry for a long time, and he was a past mayor in
a different state, so he has some past council experience. So, they’re all very accomplished. And now,
we have David Romero, who is our only working
council member. I think it’s good to have that perspective. He’s a supervisor for probation and parole
for the Seventh Judicial District, so he understands
criminal justice, law enforcement, so that’s a good
element to have on the council.”
Bell, 39, is married to Melanie, and they have two
children, Connor, 10, and Sydney, 7.
Under Bell, the city has established a $50 million
budget and employs 150.
Alan Lewis Gerstenecker is news editor of the Daily
Press. He can be contacted by calling 252-7039 or via
email at [email protected].
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