Five Colorado charter schools were given preliminary approval for BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) grants from the state Capital Construction Board. In the past, charter schools have had to relinquish their award when they couldn't raise the match required for the grant competition. It's quite possible both of the schools making it through the first round of application review will be in the same situation again this year.
Both Aspen Community School and Ross Montessori received preliminary approval for $4.2 million and $11.8 million, respectively. Now, raising the required matching funds without access to voters to raise this money will be a challenge! Twelve of the 18 projects passing this first hurdle must ask the school district's voters for approval to raise the match through property tax funds. Public charter schools don't have the same opportunity according to Colorado state law.
Three charter schools also received preliminary approval for small project funding. These were: James Irwin Charter Schools (Harrison 2 School District), Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy (Cheyenne Mtn School District) and Lotus School for Excellence (Aurora Public Schools).
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