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Lawyers representing the operator of Colorado’s “first public Christian school” are pushing back against an order by Pueblo County officials to close the school building for safety reasons.
In a Jan. 9 letter, the lawyers asked for a meeting and urged county officials not to seek an emergency court order requiring the immediate closure of Riverstone Academy’s building, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Chalkbeat. County officials had warned in a letter to school officials a few days earlier that they might seek such an order.
The dispute over the building is just one facet of the controversy surrounding Riverstone, which drew attention from state and local officials soon after it opened in August with about 30 K-5 students. The school advertises itself as a public elementary school that offers a “Christian foundation.”
In October, state education leaders warned that they might withhold public funding from Riverstone because the Colorado constitution bars religious public schools. In addition, Pueblo County officials identified more than a dozen health, fire, building, and zoning violations related to the building that Riverstone leases, and ordered fire-safety checks at the school every 30 minutes.
Emails obtained by Chalkbeat suggest the school was created to spark a test case in the courts over whether public money could go to religious schools, after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked on such a case out of Oklahoma last spring. But religious liberty is not likely to be the central issue if Riverstone’s operators were to face Pueblo County in court over their pending dispute.
Lawyer’s letter says operator doesn’t want litigation
In the Jan. 9 letter to Pueblo County officials, attorney Gregory O’Boyle, of the Colorado Springs-based firm Werner O’Boyle Cyberon, asked for a call with county officials to “discuss next steps and to avoid unnecessary conflict.”
“Our goal is full compliance through the normal land-use and building-permit processes, not litigation,” he wrote.
O’Boyle represents Forging Education, which is the group contracted to run Riverstone.
He said Riverstone officials have made a “good faith effort” to comply with county requirements and that “public interest is not served by abruptly displacing K-5 students, requiring families to secure emergency educational arrangements mid-year.”
O’Boyle’s letter notes that 29 children attend the school and eight staff members work there.
O’Boyle did not reply to requests for comment on Tuesday. Neither did Quin Friberg, a Pueblo pastor who is the executive director of both Riverstone and Forging Education.
Marci Day, assistant attorney for Pueblo County, didn’t respond to Chalkbeat questions about whether she would hold a call with Riverstone’s lawyers or whether she would seek an emergency injunction to close the school.
School opened without normal review processes
Riverstone school leaders did not go through the normal zoning and building review processes before opening the school to students last summer, according to previous interviews with county officials and a review of correspondence and documents obtained by Chalkbeat through public records requests.
In Day’s Jan. 6 letter ordering Riverstone officials to close the building, she cited a series of failures by the school’s leaders to follow local regulations.
She noted that county officials told Friberg at a July meeting that schools were not allowed in the industrial-zoned site where he wanted to open Riverstone. She also said that Riverstone officials had failed to submit three required documents to local officials for review, one of which was needed so fire and health officials could determine what changes would be needed to bring the building up to code.
Under the normal procedure for approving a building as a school, “health, safety and welfare concerns would have been required to be addressed prior to approval for occupancy by the appropriate agency,” Day wrote.
Day also cited proposed construction work at Riverstone’s building as part of the rationale for ordering closure.
The proposed changes include the removal of multiple interior walls; new sinks, drinking fountains, and fire safety fixtures; and the construction of a wheelchair ramp at the building’s entrance, according to architectural plans obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request.
“Due to the current conditions and the construction that will be required to bring the buildings and property into compliance with all building, fire, health, and zoning codes, it has been deemed unsafe to allow the continued occupancy of the buildings, particularly by school children, prior to final approval by Pueblo County,” Day wrote in the Jan. 6 letter.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
