The result of months of dialogue between the Weld RE-4 School District and a charter school group interested in opening a school in Windsor might become clearer this week when representatives of American Legacy Academy address the board of education on opening a kindergarten through eighth grade school in a Windsor neighborhood once designated as a site for an RE-4 elementary school.
American Legacy Academy personnel will appear before the five-person RE-4 board Monday evening during its monthly work session and meeting. The American Legacy Academy’s mission before the board will not only touch on the acquisition of 10 acres on Covered Bridge Parkway in Windsor’s RainDance neighborhood to build a school but also brief the board on an application to join the growing school district in August 2023.
The Weld RE-4 board of education’s work session is scheduled from 5:30-6:45 p.m. Monday, and its regular meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Severance High School.
American Legacy Academy, Inc. is a nonprofit behind the school, which is a tuition-free classical charter with a plan to “offer a back-to-basics education in math, economics, science and language skills with a firm grounding in civic responsibility and character development,” according to the school website, www.american-legacy.org.
An American Legacy Academy education will emphasize the traditions of Western Civilization using study of history, science, math, literature, philosophy and fine arts, also according to its website. The curriculum is based on a classical education model prepared by Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. The college’s Barney Charter School Initiative is an outreach program focused on the revitalization of public education through the launch and support of classical K-12 charter schools.
Windsor resident Stan Everitt, one of the five founders of the academy and a member of the board of directors, said late last week the group hopes to deliver the charter school application to the district on Monday.
“We’re trying to alleviate the capacity issue with voters not passing a bond, and we’re trying to be an asset to the school district,” Everitt said. “Our attempt is to try to unify the community under the component of our education. It’s in a neighborhood and the expectation is that families in the neighborhood will take their kids to the school. Right now, those kids go to other schools and are bussed.”
In November 2021, Weld RE-4 voters — encompassing Windsor, Severance and west Greeley — rejected a $179 million bond package to fund construction and renovation of schools including two new 73,500 square-foot PK-5 elementary schools for 600 students to open for the 2023-24 school year at a combined cost of $63 million. One of those buildings was designated for the 10-acre site in RainDance.
A second American Legacy Academy charter school site in the Tailholt neighborhood of Severance is on hold. The land there is still in the hands of developer DEVCO Investors LLC, of which Everitt was previously a partner, he said.
In Colorado, charter schools are public schools that operate through a contract with an authorizer such as the local school district, according to the state department of education. Other potential charter schools apply to the Colorado Charter School Institute, an 18-year-old administration created by the general assembly’s House of Representatives to approve or deny charter school applications, monitor charter operations and assist in conversion of a school district charter school to the institute.
American Legacy Academy will submit its application to Weld RE-4 because the school district has been granted exclusive chartering authority from the Colorado Board of Education. Status as an exclusive chartering authority means the Weld RE-4 board of eduction approves or denies charter school applications to operate within school district boundaries, according to Weld RE-4 director of communications and public relations Katie Messerli. The charter document or contract exists between the district/school board and the charter school.
“Exclusive charter authorization allows us to form a strong partnership with our charter schools, and helps ensure that we continue to uphold the high academic standards for which our district is known across all of the public schools in our district (traditional or charter), ultimately, for the benefit of our students’ success,” Messerli said in an email.
Weld RE-4 has the same exclusive chartering authority over Windsor Charter Academy, and other Weld County schools retain exclusive chartering authoring including Greeley-Evans, Weld RE-3J (Keenesburg), Weld RE-5J (Johnstown/Milliken) and Weld RE-1 (Gilcrest).
Ascent Classical Academy of Northern Colorado, another charter school in Windsor — on South County Road 5 — is authorized by the Colorado Charter School Institute.
A key part of Monday’s meeting will center on consideration of the charter group’s proposal to acquire the RainDance property that has been the subject of much discussion in the school district community dating to last year. While school district staff have recommended tabling the proposal at this point, ultimately the board of education will speak on the land matter — which is a separate but parallel issue from American Legacy Academy’s application to start a charter school in the district.
“If the board decided to reject the proposal to obtain the RainDance property with the stipulation, then that’s not a reflection of the charter’s application,” Messerli said, adding district staff has worked with charter group representatives on the application.
Everitt is retired. He was once a residential and commercial developer with the Fort Collins-based Everitt Companies, a business started by his father and grandfather.
Everitt said his colleagues on the academy endeavor are chair of the board of directors Julie Babcock, a retired attorney; consultant Craig Horton, executive director of Academica Colorado, a regional office of the Miami-based Academica that manages the establishment and operations of charter schools from building concept to curriculum resources; board member Kate Guden, a Fort Collins-based real estate agent with children in the Weld RE-4 district; and board member Cheryl Brown, who’s been a teacher and educator for 30 years.
Horton is a retired Fort Collins police officer who founded Liberty Common Charter School, and he worked with Sheena McOuat on developing CIVICA Colorado, a first-year charter school in Milliken. McOuat’s husband, Corey, is a board member with American Legacy Academy.
Weld RE-4 school district has long planned for the RainDance property to be the site of a K-5 elementary school. The property is owned by prominent Windsor resident, developer and Water Valley Company president Martin Lind. The land is in the process of being deeded to the school district as part of an intergovernmental agreement with the town of Windsor.
In Colorado, through intergovernmental agreements, developers have two ways to contribute to school districts: by providing land — as Lind is doing with RainDance — or a cash in lieu of land arrangement where the developer would give a district money to buy land in another location.
Lind, a Windsor High School graduate, is a strong supporter of the charter school moving into the community. In February emails to Weld RE-4 interim superintendent Rod Blunck, chief operating officer Jason Seybert and board of education president Russ Smart, Lind made clear his desire for the charter to be given a chance in the district or he would again pull his support of a future bond measure.
Emails containing district communication with the charter school group about the RainDance property were obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request.
Lind wrote in the email that he would deed the RainDance property to the school district with no conditions. Messerli said documentation is still being finalized.
“But be clear and for the record I also told you my companies will not support RE-4 bond issue if charter is not ‘enticed’ with opportunity to succeed in RE-4,” Lind wrote. “If charter fails, the architectural expectations of RainDance will be enforced or again I will not support a bond issue. I’m going to honor what is said, I expect the same from you all.”
Lind opposed the Weld RE-4 bond last fall following an at-times contentious back-and-forth correspondence with school district leaders including former superintendent Dan Seegmiller. Lind said he changed his mind on the bond after watching the arrogance of a “tone-deaf school board.”
“I had to regroup,” he said.
Lind said the architectural questions were related to the appearance of RE-4’s planned design for a RainDance building. The district and Lind disagreed on architectural matters, Lind said.
Lind said late last week the presence of the charter school could be a path for the school district to successfully win over the community on a new bond. With the district working with the charter group on the land, American Legacy Academy might then build a multimillion-dollar school — while saving that cost on a future Weld RE-4 bond, Lind said.
“It’s no longer about architecture,” Lind said. “It’s about being either dismissive and tone-deaf to the community or reactive and responsive to the community. That’s what this is about. I think if they’re proactive and they find solutions, and they find middle ground, then I think it’ll be so easy to support a bond, and I think there are thousands of people in Windsor who feel the same way.”
According to the American Legacy Academy proposal, the charter group will not buy outright the 10-acre RainDance land from Weld RE-4. Instead, American Legacy offers a $2 million purchase price on the land. The group will then pay the district a percentage of that total based on the number of in-district K-5 students enrolled in the charter school by a target date in 2029 to be established.
The school district said it believes the land is worth $2.1 million, according to an April 13 memo on the charter school proposal from interim superintendent Rod Blunck to board of education members.
“It’s totally appropriate from our standpoint,” Everitt said of paying money to the district. “The necessity to deal with capacity issues with the bond failing and a neighborhood school. Charter schools don’t typically go into neighborhoods, so we have a built-in student body and that gives the district and ourselves confidence that we’ll hit the numbers.
“It’s part of their trying to support a charter school and have the same fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers.”
Everitt said American Legacy Academy anticipates that by 2029, the school will serve 350 Weld RE-4 students in kindergarten through fifth grades. Blunck’s memo said based on correspondence with American Legacy Academy representatives, the proposed initial building will be able to serve a maximum of 462 K-5 students with 25-26 students per classroom.
Blunck’s memo concludes with the recommendation to hold off on the proposal, citing the district’s intention to build a needed elementary school on the site to serve 600 K-5 students and 64 preschool students. A new Weld RE-4-built school will relieve capacity issues at Skyview, Tozer/Mountain View, and possibly Grandview schools, according to the memo.
Everitt declined to comment late last week on the school district’s recommendation until the charter group discloses its position to Weld RE-4.
Blunck wrote that the charter school proposal will still require an RE-4 elementary building for that region of the school district. American Legacy’s proposal that it will accommodate 350 Weld RE-4 K-5 students with a total of 462 K-5 students is fewer than the district anticipates it needs in a K-5 building.
The K-8 charter school could open with 300 to 400 students and have a total student population of up to 900 students at full build-out, Everitt said. He emphasized those numbers are estimates.
A financial deal between American Legacy Academy and Weld RE-4 appears to represent a deviation from the process of how charter schools traditionally are built and started in Colorado. School districts do not sell or give land to charters, according to Windsor resident and real estate appraiser Chris Ruff, who was a developer on Windsor Charter Academy’s first building before the school opened in 2001 in the Diamond Valley Subdivision. Two of Ruff’s children attended Windsor Charter Academy, and he later served on the school’s board of directors.
Ruff is also the chairman and longtime member of the Weld RE-4 long range facilities planning committee. The committee’s purpose is to advise the board of education on growth trends within the district and the need for new, expanded or remodeled facilities to support student growth. The committee is comprised of community members, taxpayers, staff, administration and town planners and managers from Windsor and Severance.
Ruff and committee vice chairman Dave Grubbs, the principal at Grandview Elementary in Windsor, presented an annual report to the board of education at the board’s March meeting. On the same evening, Lind and American Legacy Academy representatives touted their plan for a school in Windsor.
The long range facilities planning report covered the ongoing growth in the district while asking how this growth is managed and what options are available to alleviate capacity issues.
Weld RE-4 schools are at 110.23% capacity in building usage, and the rate is 95% when considering modular buildings, according to the long range planning committee’s report. Modulars address extra space in classrooms but not in shared spaces such as gyms, cafeterias and hallways. The capacity rate is 119.12% in district elementary schools in building usage and 94% in total usage with modulars.
“What are the core values and beliefs of the learning experience and how do facilities support those values?” the report said.
Ruff said based on his knowledge and observation, and conversations with the Colorado League of Charter Schools, he’s familiar with school districts giving away “old, closed schools to charters — but that’s WAY different from giving away a new permit-ready site in a growing neighborhood.”
In Colorado, non-charter schools — traditional public schools — are funded through bonds approved by voters. The bonds lead to debt that is repaid by taxpayers over many years.
Charter schools are built privately by the school, and any debt incurred is paid by the per pupil funding from the state and district for every student, according to information from the American Legacy Academy website.
Non-charter schools also receive per pupil funding for every student in attendance. This money goes toward paying staff and operating costs associated with running a school and educating students. At charters, the per pupil funding is also used for staff and operating costs — along with the repayment of any debt incurred from building the school facilities.
These buildings and facilities are not paid by increasing taxes, according to ALA.
Ruff said charters usually find their own land or build or repurpose existing buildings “before growing enough to be viable and fund their own facility.”
His entity, Windsor Development Group, developed the land and built and leased WCA’s first building to the school. WCA eventually purchased an additional parking lot more than a decade ago for $215,000, and it purchased its current middle and high school for $8 million from WCA Holdings LLC in 2016, according to the Weld County Assessor website.
Ruff said Tom Roche of Roche Constructors Inc. was the original manager of WCA Holdings. Ruff said WCA Holdings bought the land out of foreclosure from Warren Federal Credit Union specifically for Windsor Charter Academy. Russ said WCA Holdings built and leased the middle/high school facility to Windsor Charter and later sold the building to the school.
Ruff said he does not believe it’s possible for American Legacy Academy to open a school by August 2023.
“There is simply too much process on a local and state level,” he wrote in an email, referring to design and engineering approvals, building permits and state inspections, “for either party to accomplish that, so it is a false hope.”