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Riverstone Academy, a new school in southern Colorado, has been billed as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” by its authorizer. Its website calls it a public elementary school.
But some state and county officials say Riverstone is a private school — a designation that means different rules on everything from fire and building inspections to funding and student achievement.
Riverstone’s murky status could become a key factor in a potential legal fight over whether the state will fund the school, as Riverstone’s backers want. Public schools in Colorado are entitled to state education funding but private schools are not.
The school, in leased space just outside Pueblo city limits, has four classrooms and just over 30 students. It first garnered headlines and sparked consternation among state education officials in early October. That’s when Ken Witt, the leader of the group that authorized the school, declared at a public meeting that Riverstone is Colorado’s “first public Christian school.”
The news caught some elected officials and members of the public by surprise, because Riverstone opened quietly with no reference to its religious affiliation in at least three key start-up documents, Chalkbeat found. Riverstone’s website says the school offers a “Christian foundation” and mentions Christian curriculum.
On Oct. 10, the day after Witt’s declaration, the Colorado Department of Education threatened to withhold public funding from the school in a letter to Witt’s group, Education reEnvisioned BOCES. The group, based near Colorado Springs, is one of 21 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services in the state.
Witt said repeatedly in a recent interview with Chalkbeat that Riverstone is a public school because it is authorized by a BOCES, which are allowed to authorize public schools under Colorado law, and has a school code from the Colorado Department of Education.
Information about Riverstone being characterized as a private school in certain situations emerged after Chalkbeat requested information from the Pueblo County Planning and Development Department about the school’s location on Aspen Circle. The area is zoned “light industrial,” a designation that permits a variety of businesses, including marijuana operations, warehouses, and freight depots, but not elementary schools.
Carmen Howard, the department’s director, confirmed by email this week that the property occupied by the school is not in compliance with county zoning regulations but did not answer follow up questions about whether the school can continue operating there.
“Our department is working through the standard process to bring the property into compliance under the County’s Unified Development Code,” she wrote. “Because this is an active zoning case, we’re limited in what we can share, but we can confirm that the use as it’s currently operating is not permitted at that location.”
On Wednesday, Howard noted by email that the department considers the school private based on information “from Riverstone.” In November, Pueblo County commissioners will consider a proposal to allow private schools in light industrial zones.
Quin Friberg, Riverstone’s executive director, said by text that the school is run by a private organization via a contract with a public entity, “so when talking with zoning they said for their purposes it would be considered private.”
“We have also been working since July to get the zoning corrected and are optimistic that will happen soon,” he wrote. “There is a plan in place that everyone has agreed to in order to resolve the issue.”
He didn’t respond to follow-up questions from Chalkbeat about the plan.
Chalkbeat also inquired about Riverstone’s status with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control, which typically oversees building code and fire code compliance for public schools.
An unsigned email from the division’s public information office on Wednesday said, “Riverstone Academy is being deemed a private school” and referred questions to local officials in Pueblo County.
Officials have different takes on Riverstone’s Christian affiliation
Riverstone came about through an unusual arrangement involving Education reEnvisioned BOCES, two nonprofit groups, and two school districts 60 miles apart. Unlike most public schools, which typically take more than a year to plan and open, Riverstone was proposed and launched within months.
The first day of school was Aug. 11, less than three months after a tie at the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the nation’s first religious charter school from opening in Oklahoma. Lawyers in that case argued not that Oklahoma should fund religious public schools, but that charter schools aren’t really public. Instead they described them as semi-private entities, more like a nonprofit that contracts with the state to provide a service.
Many observers expect advocates for publicly funded religious education to find a new test case, one where Amy Coney Barrett, who recused herself from the Oklahoma case, could cast a potentially decisive vote.
It’s not clear if Riverstone will become that test, but its backers have forcefully pushed back against the Colorado Department of Education’s argument that public schools can’t be religious.
Witt said in an Oct. 21 letter to the department that he was “alarmed at the threat” to Riverstone’s funding, and that not funding the school because of its religious affiliation would amount to religious discrimination.
Along with mixed messages about whether Riverstone is public or private, there are still questions about whether public officials who had a hand in allowing the school to open knew it was a religious school.
Asked if she knew of Riverstone’s Christian affiliation before she voted to approve a contract with the school, Lis Richard, president of the Education reEnvisioned BOCES, first said she was puzzled by Chalkbeat’s question.
“Every public school and district in the state of Colorado has a ‘Christian’ affiliation by the shear (sic) fact that there are Christians who attend their schools an (sic) serve in their district,” she wrote by email.
Asked if she was aware that Riverstone planned to offer a “Christian foundation” and “Christian curriculum,” she said she was.
But Anne Ochs, president of the Pueblo District 70 school board, said she didn’t consider Riverstone a religious school when her board voted in June to approve an agreement that would allow the school to open within district boundaries.
She said she knew the school planned to use Christian curriculum, but “to me that doesn’t make it a religious school.”
Ochs said she took a job with Education reEnvisioned BOCES in July, but had not yet interviewed for the position when she voted to approve the Riverstone agreement.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.