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Our View: Dinosaur deserves school

Dinosaur Community Charter School has good reason to celebrate.

Last week, the Moffat County School District Board of Education voted to defer revoking the charter of the struggling school.

In doing so, the board essentially allowed Dinosaur to finish out the school year, regroup and work to improve its special education programs.



We applaud the board for allowing Dinosaur educators to find a way to continue serving the school’s more than 35 students. And we applaud Dinosaur school officials for persevering through the toughest of circumstances.

We think that educators who are so determined to provide a rural town with a local school can have only the students’ best interest in mind.



Still, the board deferred the revocation of the school’s charter with some conditions. Dinosaur must find another chartering authority, through Rangely Public Schools or through the State Charter School Institute.

If Dinosaur finds another chartering authority, the school no longer would be Moffat County School District’s responsibility.

In the meantime, the board still is requiring Dinosaur to comply with state and federal regulations that mandate the school have qualified staff to teach special education students.

Last week’s decision to defer the revocation of the school’s charter comes after months of tense negotiations and emotional discussion.

But after administrators and legal counsel on both sides met for at least six hours in early December, they found some room for compromise.

The school district didn’t retreat from its position that Dinosaur Community Charter School meet local, state and federal requirements. And charter school officials didn’t retreat from their efforts to provide education to Dinosaur’s children.

We agree with the School Board that Dinosaur should provide the most qualified staff for its special education students.

But all along, we’ve said that Dinosaur deserves its own school.

We urge both sides to continue to compromise until there’s a resolution.


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