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School district mulls future of Woody Creek site

Jennifer Davoren

The Pitkin County Commissioners shot down the Aspen School District’s plans to build affordable housing for teachers, but the district is still looking to make plans for the proposed construction site.The construction proposal rejected by the county last week called for three buildings of 10 two-bedroom apartments, along with three free-market homes. The project was to be built in Woody Creek near a similar housing development.Now that the proposal is no longer possible, the school board must make a decision about the district-owned land, school board secretary Jon Seigle said Monday night.”We need to figure out long-range or short-range strategy for our free-range lot,” Seigle said.The board discussed a few possibilities for the land, including selling the lot and using the proceeds to buy into neighboring development projects. However, board members expressed their hopes that the land could be utilized for a construction project of some kind.”I’ll look into what can be built there,” board treasurer Alice Davis said. In other board action: -Aspen High School Principal Kendall Evans informed the board that he will receive a guaranteed maximum price for the new AHS addition and renovations within the next two weeks. The high school has also purchased two modular units to be used as office space for district employees displaced by construction.-The district’s annual Student Summit will continue as planned on April 6. The summit is designed to allow school board officials and district administrators to hear student input on a variety of subjects. This year’s event will focus on topics such as difficulty of class work and school safety.-AHS gained assistance for spring sports Monday night, hiring Randy Crawford, Eric Berg, Arthur Novoseletski and Scott Dorais as volunteer coaches for the girls tennis team and Danielle Vallas and Rebecca Hayes as coaches for junior varsity girls soccer.Return to The Aspen Times or AspenAlive.com