Colorado’s ‘first public Christian school’ closes permanently

“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 controversial “public Christian school” in southern Colorado has closed permanently after changes in Colorado law cut off state funding, its executive director wrote in a legal filing. Backers opened the 30-student Riverstone Academy in Pueblo County nine months ago with hopes of sparking a religious liberty lawsuit that would go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, the school faced setbacks — including safety problems that forced it to move and a $20,000 settlement with parents of a young student — and the legal effort fizzled. Citing the new provisions in state law, Riverstone Executive Director Quin Friberg wrote in a legal document that the school’s efforts “will be directed to winding up its operations and shutting down” after the last day of school last week. The filing signed by Friberg on Thursday is part of a lawsuit brought by three school board candidates against the Pueblo 70 school board alleging open meetings violations related to Riverstone’s launch. Another lawsuit — the one backers hoped would go to the Supreme Court — came in February when Riverstone and its authorizer sued the state for religious discrimination, citing the possibility that the state could eventually claw back the school’s public funding. Emails obtained by Chalkbeat show the school was created at the behest of a conservative law firm to spark such a lawsuit after the Supreme Court deadlocked on a similar case out of Oklahoma last spring. The firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, asked an education lawyer named Brad Miller if he could “find a way for a parallel case to be initiated out of Colorado.” The case was short-lived. The school and its authorizer, a public education co-op based in Monument, dropped the lawsuit in May . The death knell for Riverstone was a pair of amendments lawmakers passed in the last few days of this spring’s legislative session. One bars co-ops like the one that authorized Riverstone from starting schools or programs outside their member school districts. The other bars school districts or co-ops from having brick and mortar schools that are entirely run by contractors. The new limits effectively put Riverstone’s authorizer — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services or ERBOCES — at odds with state law, making Riverstone ineligible for state funding. That’s because Riverstone is located outside of ERBOCES’ two member school districts and is run by a contractor. Riverstone opened quietly last summer in a former office in an industrial area in Pueblo County. It described itself as a public elementary school that offered a Christian foundation, but its religious affiliation wasn’t widely known until October. That’s when Ken Witt, the executive director of ERBOCES, announced at a public meeting that Riverstone was Colorado’s first public Christian school, surprising members of the public and some government officials. The fallout included the abrupt resignation in December of Pueblo 70 school board member Anne Ochs after a district parent criticized her for her role bringing Riverstone into the district and failing to disclose a conflict of interest. Friberg and Witt did not respond to requests for comment about Riverstone’s closure. Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org .

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