CREEDE — The Creede School District Board of Education opened its meeting on Tuesday, May 25, with a finance report from Business Manager Lori Heinrich.

Heinrich stated that finances were slightly elevated due to the receipt of yearly property taxes and grants that were being paid out for April. Heinrich explained to the board that she would be presenting the 2021-22 budget soon and was working on new grant applications for the next fiscal year.

“We are continuing to see our revenues catch up to our expenses now and will until the end of the (fiscal) year,” Heinrich said.

Next board members heard from Creede High School Principal John Goss about the graduation ceremony on May 29 at 1 p.m. Goss also updated the board on this year’s Junior and Senior Prom, saying it was a huge success and that having it outdoors was a great idea for the students.

Goss stated that he also held a program to discuss safe driving and distracted driving with older students.

“With summer coming up they will be driving a lot more because they won’t be in school and we went into distracted driving, laws, getting learner permits and finished with a talk about a student we lost due to a driving accident,” he said.

Goss continued his presentation by telling the board about all the field trips the students have recently participated in. Kindergarten and first grade students recently visited the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park in Pagosa and then visited the Great Sand Dunes where it snowed the entire day but according to Goss, it did not deter the students from having a wonderful time.

“Now that restrictions are lessening, the students are being able to get out and enjoy more and more,” he said.

Older students with the school have done everything from visiting the local Creede Mining Museum to touring the Quiller Gallery, and one class even visited local businesses to get their opinion on food trucks coming to the area during the summer season and took their findings to the Creede City Board of Trustees for them to take into consideration when discussing the issue for the coming year.

Creede School has been busy closing out the last of the school year. Several students, teachers and staff have expressed their gratitude to the district for their handling of the 2020-2021 school year and were grateful that students were able to mostly stay with in-person learning. Hopes remain high that next year will have less COVID restrictions for the district to follow.

Board members closed out the remainder of the meeting with a brief discussion of policy changes and second readings.