From Eastbridge residents:

"Our group of concerned Stapleton residents has scheduled a meeting to be held TOMORROW (11/24) at 4:30p at the Stapleton Development Corp. offices in the 29th Ave. Town Center (enter next to the dry cleaners) on the third floor. Senator Michael Johnston and representatives from Forest City and the Stapleton Development Corp. will be there to answer our questions about the location for the third Stapleton school and other changes in the Stapleton development plan."

**UPDATE: from my inbox -- I personally did not attend the meeting **

"I’d like to thank all of you who attended the Stapleton informational meeting this evening regarding the third school site selection process. Your comments and questions were thoughtful and helpful in coming to a better understanding of the constraints on school site selection. I wanted to brief those of you who didn’t attend or left early on what was discussed regarding funding and pushing forward the remediation process at 26th and Iola, as well as alternate school site locations.

"We are very thankful for those representatives from the Department of Aviation, Department of Finance, Colorado Department of Health, Forest City and Senator Michael Johnston who attended the meeting. They were all very helpful in helping us understand what needs to be done to make progress in the remediation process of 26th and Iola. We determined that the city remains in negotiations with Chartis, the insurer, but that we may be able to influence some key political figures to help find alternate funding or speed up the negotiation process with the city and Chartis. If we can secure funding for the 26th and Iola site we will ask DPS to consider this site again. This is all hypothetical as we do not know if we can find funding, whether the land can be remediated in time to break ground for the new school in June of 2010 (Dept. of Aviation tells us it will take approximately 6 mths to remediate), or whether DPS would approve this location. All we can do
is try to make all of these conditions align within the timeframe available for building the school by 2011.

"We also discussed whether there are any possible alternate locations for the third school. The only other plot of land south of I-70 large enough (10+ acres) is the land slated for a greenspace/ park along 26th Ave in the Eastbridge neighborhood. This land is in the city of Aurora and an agreement would need to be made with the city of Aurora. We would also have to ask DPS about the feasibility of this location.

"Lastly, we discussed the possibility of moving the school closer to MLK and CPB at the 35th and Syracuse location, possibly where the current parking garage stands.


"Below is an outline of the steps we would like to take, in order of priority, to further our cause for an alternate location of the third school. This was discussed with Forest City after the meeting and they are open to all of these possibilities.

1. Pursue every avenue possible in the coming month to fund the remediation of 26th and Iola to meet the DPS site selection timeline of January 1, possibly asking DPS to move forward with the design process without site selection in place. If funding is in place we feel we may be able to influence DPS decision on site selection.

2. Explore the possibility of purchasing, trading, or leasing land along 26th Ave, from the city of Aurora originally slated for a 13+ acre park. Contact DPS to question the possibility of this location.

3. Explore the possibility of using another section of land on the 35th and Syracuse parcel.