Peetz celebrates grand opening of new school
- Media Logic Radio
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
New facility is ready for the 21st century
By Callie Jones | cjones@prairiemountainmedia.com | Sterling Journal-Advocate
PUBLISHED: January 6, 2026 at 4:45 PM MST
Peetz School District kicked off the New Year with a grand opening Monday, Jan. 5, celebrating the completion of its new school.
The celebration began with a short message from Superintendent Jeff Durbin in the newly renovated small gym.
“I want to thank each and every one of you for making an effort to come out and see our building new school facility that we call ready for the 21st century. I think you will be very impressed with what you see tonight,” he said.
Durbin recognized special guests in attendance including Colorado Education Commissioner Susanna Cordova; State Representative Dusty Johnson; Sheldon Rosenkranc, the district’s former building representative; and Colorado School Districts Self Insurance Pool representatives Audrey Mauser and Francisco Martinez. He also recognized Jay Hoskinson, Colorado Department of Education Northeast Regional Program Manager for the BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) grant. Peetz received a $23.2 million BEST grant in May 2022 to fund the project, followed by another $3.8 million supplemental BEST grant later on and voters in November 2022 passed an $11.8 million bond.
Also at the grand opening were the staff from Neenan Archistruction, who designed and built the new addition and the remodel.
“All of these people worked diligently day to day, working with us to make sure this all came together. They did some amazing things and they spent many, many hours with us,” Durbin said.
The project was completed in two phases, the first, which started in the summer of 2023, was the construction of a new building that included several classrooms, as well as the cafeteria and library. The new portion of the building was opened at the start of the 2024-25 school year. The second phase of the project, which just recently wrapped up, included demolishing most of the old building, building the remainder of the new facility including administrative offices, a new stage and music room and upgrading the remaining portion of the old building including both gyms, the ag shop and the commons area.
During Monday’s celebration, Durbin also took time to recognize Peetz School’s former principal, Mike Forster, saying “a lot of what you see is also his foresight, his thinking.” Plus, he thanked the school staff, the current principal Kelly Hessler and the school board.
Durbin told all those in the audience “we feel very privileged to have your presence tonight in this facility to see what five years of hard work, dedication entails. There have been a lot of conversations that have taken place but at the end of the day, I will tell you this is probably one of the best things that ever happened in my life,” he said.
Following his remarks, social studies teacher and student council sponsor Brian Kurz spoke.
“While most of our kids aren’t here right now this second, the idea that this school is a place to be avoided when school is not in session is not true of this community, nor this school, or these kids,” he said, sharing that one parent told him their Bulldog was in the school nearly every other day during Christmas break and sometimes multiple times a day. People from the community and past graduates were there as well.
“Because this place is their second home and that is due to the efforts of the architects, engineers and construction crews that spent literal years putting our new school together. I can tell you from personal accounts, the kids felt honored to be included in the planning phase of the building and the students are very pleased with the results of your efforts. If we can get as many years out of this new building as we’ve gotten out of our last building, our community will be truly blessed.”
The students also asked him to thank the school board for all of their work in pursuing the BEST grant and rallying the community behind this endeavor. Plus, they gave a shoutout to the administration for their hard work, the staff for living through all of the construction “and being the awesome teachers that they already were” and Mr. Forster.
Following a ribbon cutting to mark the official opening of the new school, guests were invited to tour the building and enjoy refreshments.
