RE-1 Valley schools win BEST grant for major upgrades

RE-1 Valley schools won an $8,388,952.44 BEST grant that could finally push long-delayed repairs into the field at six Logan County campuses, from Caliche Schools and Campbell Elementary to Sterling High School, Ayres Elementary, Sterling Middle School and the Hagen Preschool/Admin Building.

The district’s facilities plan says the money is aimed at the problems families can see and feel every day: aging roofs, outdated HVAC and plumbing systems, structural repairs, safer entryways, updated surveillance systems and accessibility improvements. Those upgrades matter most in buildings that serve students in Sterling, Caliche and Iliff, where the district has said maintenance and modernization needs have piled up beyond what local funding alone could cover.

BEST, short for Building Excellent Schools Today, was established in 2008 to address health, safety and security problems in Colorado public schools. The Colorado Department of Education says the program has improved learning environments for more than 410,000 students, with nearly 70% of funded projects going to rural and small rural districts. Colorado Treasury says BEST has financed more than $1.7 billion for K-12 school updates and new construction.

For RE-1 Valley, the award also marks persistence. A May 19, 2025 board-minutes document showed the district ranked 25th out of 53 BEST applicants, while only the top 15 received funding that year. District officials had framed the grant as part of a broader 2025 facilities push, signaling that the region’s school buildings needed a competitive state program to tackle work the local budget could not absorb on its own.

Superintendent Dustin Hunt said in a January 2026 update that a successful BEST application could allow construction to begin in the summer of 2026. The Capital Construction Assistance Board approved its FY2026-27 prioritized list of projects on May 21, and the list now goes to the Colorado State Board of Education in June for review and approval, keeping the district’s timeline pointed toward summer work if the project clears the final step.

For Logan County families, the grant is less about abstract state support than about whether students walk into secure doors, cooled classrooms and buildings that are sound enough to keep serving them for years.