Auctioneer Jimmy Flowers told the San Miguel Basin Forum last week that he has all of the items for the West End Public Schools District auction uploaded to the AuctionTime website. The online auction opens July 31, but all items can be viewed now by accessing the following link: auctiontime.com/listings/auctions/online/consignment-package/west-end-school-district-inventory-auction/186595. The items available are from the old Naturita Elementary School and the old middle school-high school in Nucla. The items up for auction have been kept inside the old Nucla school on main street that’s been abandoned for some time.
Flowers also gave the Forum instructions for navigating the website. He wants West End locals to be familiar with it and feel comfortable.
"Many interested buyers may be new to the AuctionTime website,” Flowers said, “so I thought a ‘how-to’ link for the website might be useful for them. If they click the following link, it will give them easy tutorials on how to register, view and bid on the items on AuctionTime.”
The instruction link is auctiontime.com/info/how-to.
Flowers added that there are important dates to remember. Bidding opens on Wednesday, July 31, after 4 p.m. Until that date, the items can be viewed online, but no bids can be placed. Bidding will then close for all items throughout the day on Aug. 7, but bid closing times will be staggered. The bids begin closing at 9 a.m. and others continue throughout the day.
He said all should know the “load out” and payment date will be Aug. 10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. “We will be on site to assist in any way possible with load out during that time,” he told the Forum.
He said he has his fingers crossed for a successful auction.
In other West End Public Schools District news, superintendent Clint Wytulka told the Forum he has received four candidate applications for the middle school-high school principal position. He is reviewing those now to replace Malisha Reed, who resigned at the end of the school year.
Sara Bray will continue as elementary school principal for the 2024-25 school year.
Reed, who served in Nucla for eight years and also ran the FFA program there, has committed to working in Norwood Public School in a similar role.
“I took the secondary 6 through 12 principal position in Norwood,” she told the Forum.
She said she will support all programs that Norwood offers, which include veteran science teacher Catherine Kolbet’s agriculture and FFA programs.
“I have met the new superintendent and am very excited for this upcoming school year,” Reed said over the weekend.
Norwood’s new superintendent, replacing Todd Bittner, who retired at the end of this last school year, is Todd Bissell. Bissell has worked in education for 35 years and was previously a principal in Nucla. He’s moving back to the West End area from Windsor, CO.
Sara Rasmussen, longtime administrator and originally of Nucla, is again working at Norwood Public School as the pre-K through fifth grade principal.
