Charter school raises hopes for wildlife center

FORT COLLINS – A budding collaboration between a raptor rescue project, a nationwide chain of charter schools and a creative real estate developer holds the promise of jump-starting plans for a grand-scale nature interpretive center.

The Rocky Mountain Raptor Program three years ago teamed with developer Mickey Willis, owner of Paradigm Realty and Development Co., to acquire 26 acres of land on the north side of Vine Drive, just east of its intersection with Linden Street.

Using the Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Ariz., as a close model, the raptor program, Willis and the Fort Collins-based National Association for Interpretation hatched plans to build a wildlife and nature interpretive center that has the potential to become a major regional attraction for tourism and education.

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Enter Imagine Schools, a highly successful network of charter schools, with an offer to build the $6 million, kindergarten-through-eighth grade Imagine Environmental School on the site.

“It’s like having the missing piece fall into place for us,´ said Bob Francella, the raptor program’s director of public support. “This gets things moving forward.”

Board members of the proposed school submitted an application to the Charter School Institute of Colorado, which will hold a final hearing March 18 to decide on granting the charter.

Fast track

Should the institute rule favorably, the fast-moving Imagine developers will begin construction this year and open the 30,000-square-foot school on four acres of land adjacent to the raptor center at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year.

“If any application has a lot going for it, this one does,´ said Tony Pariso, regional director of Imagine Schools of Colorado. “The marriage of the school and the nature center is the key here.”

The purchase of four acres of land by Imagine, and prospects for the purchase of another six to eight acres by Paradigm for a loft development, would go far toward the group’s goal of raising somewhere between $8 million and $12 million to get the wildlife and environmental center under way.

“Money attracts money, and we have talked to funders who want to see that there are other sources of money available before they step forward,” raptor program executive director Judy Scherpelz said. “It brings not only funds to us, but also stability and credibility.”

Arlington, Va.-based Imagine Schools Inc. built and operates about 50 schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia. Founders Dennis and Eileen Bakke have invested a personal fortune in excess of $1 billion, derived from his roles as founder, president and CEO of global power company AES Corp., to build the network.

Three Colorado schools, one in Firestone and two others in the Colorado Springs area, are under Pariso’s oversight.

“Dennis Bakke made a considerable amount of money in the energy business, and they’ve chosen to give back through Imagine,” Pariso said. “They are genuine in their beliefs. … The feature that we like best is project-based, interdisciplinary learning, and this proposal offers tremendous opportunities for that.”

Architect chosen

Imagine has engaged the Fort Collins firm RB+B Architects, which designed Fossil Ridge High School and Bacon Elementary School, to design the new Imagine school.

Pariso said key advantages in the proposed project are that the $6 million budget is funded upfront, and that the company’s experience makes for a fast-paced construction timetable.

Willis said the Imagine model insulates their schools from many of the pitfalls that other charter schools face.

“The success rate for charter schools is questionable,” Willis said. “A lot of them don’t make it. But here, we get a school that is designed for its purpose, rather than winding up in a strip mall somewhere, or in another location. And in this case, financing is not an issue.”

The group had previously looked to the Poudre School District as a partner, and PSD officials even accompanied project organizers on a trip to Tucson for a firsthand look at the Sonora museum.

Willis and raptor center staff members pitched a link to the PSD-operated lab school, but timing and funding became roadblocks, Scherpelz said.

At a presentation before the PSD board by the Imagine/raptor center group, board members expressed both enthusiasm for the project along with a degree of dismay that PSD could not be involved.

“They told us they wanted to be kept in the loop, and they will be,” Scherpelz said. “We will still work with PSD in a very close manner, and we will be producing programming and activities for all the schools in PSD, not just Imagine.