Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.A recent law change aimed at what some Colorado lawmakers saw as a rogue school authorizing group quickly changed the trajectory of three public schools this spring. One closed, one will stay open, and the fate of the third is a mystery. The new law put strict limits on the school-authorizing power of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES. It passed quickly in the last days of this spring’s legislative session, a sign of the urgency lawmakers felt in their bid to rein in one particular BOCES: Education reEnvisioned. The Monument-based group, often called ERBOCES, started a controversial “public Christian school” last August and fueled explosive growth in homeschool enrichment programs that cost the state tens of millions of dollars. The law forced ERBOCES’ three brick-and-mortar schools to find a new path forward or shut down. Riverstone Academy, the public Christian school, closed at the end of the school year. It had about 30 elementary students.Ascend College Prep became a charter school after winning authorization last month from the Charter School Institute, a statewide charter authorizer. Last year, the Colorado Springs school served 116 students in grades 10 through 12.It’s not clear what will happen to the third school, the 260-student Pueblo Classical Academy. School leaders were unsuccessful in their recent effort to become a charter school authorized by Pueblo School District 60. They haven’t responded to questions about whether the school will close or obtain a new arrangement that will allow it to stay open. The new law bars BOCES from authorizing schools outside their member school districts and from having brick-and-mortar schools entirely run by contractors. Since Riverstone, Ascend, and Pueblo Classical were outside ERBOCES’ member school districts and run by contractors, they didn’t meet the new law’s requirements.Riverstone’s leader, Quin Friberg, didn’t respond to a request for comment about why he didn’t seek a new authorizer for the school. Riverstone had been forced out of its original building midway through the school year because of safety concerns and hadn’t completed the required improvements to move back in. After the law change, Ascend officials rushed to convert it to a charter school under the umbrella of the Charter School Institute, a move that also required approval from Academy District 20, where the school is located. Both tasks had to be finished in about six weeks.Ascend Principal Karin McWhorter said her team was blindsided by the abrupt law change. “Ascend has done everything right for five years,” she said. “We keep meticulous records, we have a 100% graduation rate, we follow every single law and regulation to the letter, and so … my initial thought was, it felt very unfair.”McWhorter said becoming a charter school will also bring benefits, including access to certain kinds of capital project funding for schools. McWhorter opened Ascend in 2021 after teaching at the Air Force Academy and finding that some students arrived unprepared for college-level work. She started the school with high school juniors and seniors, then added sophomores in its third year so there would be enough students to receive a state rating. The school, housed in leased office space, caps classes at 16 students and enrollment at 125.Pueblo Classical Academy has recently posted school supply lists and enrollment forms for the 2026-27 year, but it’s not clear how the school will open without a new authorizer. Pueblo Classical has a history of switching authorizers. It opened in 2021 with ERBOCES as its authorizer. In 2022, it became a charter school authorized by District 70. But in 2024, the district revoked its charter because of financial breaches and its failure to report an employee’s arrest, among other concerns. At that point, the school returned to ERBOCES. Spokespeople for Pueblo County District 70, where the school is located, and the Charter School Institute said Pueblo Classical had not applied to them for authorization. Ken Witt, ERBOCES’ executive director, said by email Wednesday he doesn’t know if Pueblo Classical has found a new authorizer. Dave Martin, the head of the three-school network that includes Pueblo Classical, didn’t respond to repeated email and phone messages asking about the school’s plans for the coming year. Martin did speak to Chalkbeat just before the June 23 vote by the Pueblo 60 school board on whether to authorize Pueblo Classical as a charter school. He expressed frustration over the sudden law change, saying his students were getting caught in the political crossfire. “Shame on those folks who swing to the right, and shame on those folks who swing to the left, because at the end of the day, not one of those 260 families that we serve had anything to do with either side,” he said. Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
