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Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs School District officials already are looking at ways to house the estimated 300 school-aged children from the proposed Steamboat 700 development on the west end of town.

In preliminary talks with the city and Steamboat 700 officials, school district administrators are trying to find a way for the development to contribute to the construction of a new school, likely on a 35-acre plot the district owns near the development.

Superintendent Shalee Cunningham said developers routinely help pay for schools in California, where she moved from, and she would like to see the same happen in Steamboat.

School Board member Laura Anderson, project manager said the school district's request for assistance in building a new school is a reasonable expectation. District officials met with Steamboat 700 engineers and city representatives two weeks ago, and Anderson said the district will meet again with Steamboat 700 representatives in the near future.

Steamboat 700 Project Manager Danny Mulcahy said a school "absolutely" will be built near the development, though he does not want his group to bear all of the cost.

"There will be a new school out there eventually, but that demand for the new school will be caused by the people already living there," he said. "Steamboat 700 shouldn't bear the burden of an entire new school because we're generating 300 students all together. I want it to be an equitable arrangement all together."

Mulcahy said the school will be built "significantly after" the development is finished.

Growth

The school district has room for a maximum of about 60 new students at the elementary schools, Cunningham said.

The new school on the west end of town likely would be for students from kindergarten to eighth grade, meaning Steamboat Springs High School would have to accommodate those students when they reach ninth grade.

"When we built that school, we built it for physical expansion," Facilities Director Rick Denney said about the high school, which could be expanded vertically or out onto the grassy field directly outside the school's common area.

Denney also said the high school could use an alternate schedule to fit more students into existing space.