The state Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board Wednesday approved the first grant of Build Excellent Schools Today funds to a charter school, awarding $1.3 million to The Classical Academy of Colorado Springs for a school that’s being built on the grounds of Pikes Peak Community College.
The board also approved grants to two small districts that were kind of the poster kids for the BEST program, Edison and Miami-Yoder on the plains of El Paso County. Those “are the two schools that inspired the then-speaker of the House [Andrew Romanoff] to put together the BEST bill,” said board chair Mary Wickersham, who was the author of the 2004 “Crumbling Classrooms” report that began raising public awareness of school building needs.
The board makes recommendations for grants to the State Board of Education, which will consider proposals at its Aug. 12/13 meeting. The construction board will finish its list of recommendations Thursday.
In late 2007 The Classical Academy’s 800 students were driven out of the modular classrooms they had been using because of mold problems and have been using space in four Academy District 20 buildings. Construction began late last year on the new school at the Pikes Peak campus, with completion expected at the end of September. The charter is providing $11.6 million of the total cost.
The construction board approved a $17.7 million grant to Miami-Yoder for phase two of expansion of its PRE-12 building. There is no local match because the district already is at 90 percent of its bonding capacity. The plan is to use the state funding to pay off a lease-purchase plan.
The board also approved a $78,737 cash grant to the Edison district to help pay the final bills on $2.6 million elementary school construction project that was paid for with $2.2 million in previous state grants and about $410,000 in local money.
The board is considering 91 grant applications including $231.3 million in requests with $163.8 million in district matches. This is the largest round of grant application since the BEST program was established in 2008 and is the last round to be a decided before a statewide needs assessment of all school buildings is completed later this year.
Do your homework
List of applicants and program rules (514-page PDF)
Division of Capital Construction Assistance webpage