Doghouse to relocate to HHS business room

The Haxtun Board of Education met for a special meeting Wednesday morning, June 1. The short agenda listed just two action items including re-keying District buildings and relocating The Doghouse store to the high school.

Four board members along with administrators Marsha Cody and Dustin Seger and District Business Manager Lynda Firme attended the early morning meeting. Board members present included Audree Edwards, Steve Hadeen, Amy Kilgour and Rich Starkebaum.

The local BOE first voted to approve a quote from Colorado Doorways to rekey the entire District for $16,219. The primary reason to rekey buildings, Cody said, is for student safety.

“The reason for rekeying is that schools are required to be kept secure. Similar to our Haxtun Community Center, we need to know who is in the building and has access,” Cody said. “I believe the Community Center has a few keys that can be checked out when they are needed. We want people who need to have access to the building and rooms to have the access they need, but we need to know who has keys and to what rooms.”

A date to rekey District has not been set yet as the quote needed approval to move forward. Cody said a commercial locksmith will first come visit the school site and once a walk through is complete a date will be set. Hopes are to have the project competed by the start of school next fall.

As for The Doghouse store, board members voted to end a lease at the 105 East Strohm Street location and move the student CTE store to the high school. Specifically, next year The Doghouse will be located in the front part of the current high school business room.

The move, Cody said, allows students, teachers and substitutes to remain on campus during the school day.

“There are large windows facing the parking lot, which can be used to display merchandise. The back half of the room will be a makerspace utilized by various CTE programs and STEAM/robotics,” said Cody. “The community will be able to purchase items at The Doghouse during the school day by asking the high school secretary to let them in.”

Cody also noted that the move would allow for student-created items to be sold at games and school events either by opening up the store or creating pop-up stores.

“We greatly appreciated the partnership with Cenex. The move in location is to provide greater accessibility to The Doghouse for staff and students during the school day, not because there were any problems with the current lease,” Cody added.