Colorado Early Colleges charter school pays $8M for Fort Collins building

FORT COLLINS — Colorado Early Colleges — a Colorado Springs-based charter school organization that opened a Fort Collins campus in 2012 — closed recently on the $8.05 million purchase of an industrial building in Fort Collins, where it plans to expand its local high school offerings.

CEC bought the roughly 90,000-square-foot building at 4424 Innovation Drive from Henderson-based Merritt Professional Properties LLC. Advanced Energy Industries Inc. had occupied the building for the past several years, but Sandi Brown, head of school for CEC Fort Collins, said the company’s departure from the facility this past spring as it consolidates into fewer locations opened the door for the school’s purchase.

Brown said CEC plans to undertake an $8 million buildout, with hopes of opening the facility for the 2017-18 school year.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Empowering communities

Rocky Mountain Health Plans (RMHP), part of the UnitedHealthcare family, has pledged its commitment to uplift these communities through substantial investments in organizations addressing the distinct needs of our communities.

CEC Fort Collins has a high school at 4800 Wheaton Drive in which it occupies about 25,000 square feet and leases out the rest of the building. The school also runs a middle school for grades 6-8 at 4512 McMurry Ave., within walking distance of the new high school site.

CEC, founded by former state legislator and Colorado Springs businessman Keith King, is open to students of any level, from those soaring academically to those at risk of not graduating. The focus of the school is to help students gain their high school diplomas concurrently with associates degrees and other certifications by partnering with local community colleges such as Front Range and Aims.

After opening the Colorado Springs high school in 2007, CEC followed with the Fort Collins high school, then one in Parker and then the middle school in Fort Collins in 2015. A high school is also slated to open in Aurora in 2017. Newsweek last year ranked the Fort Collins high school No. 1 in Colorado and No. 66 nationally among public high schools.

Since opening with 200 students in 2012, CEC Fort Collins has grown to 950 students in grades 6-12. Brown said the new facility should allow that figure to grow to 1,500, including 1,200 in the high school. The move will also allow the school to add a host of new programming for things like medical services, culinary and business disciplines.

Brown noted that in the school’s most recent graduating class of 125 students, 84 associates degrees and 16 professional certifications were handed out. Of the 65 students who had been at the school for four years, all but two left with associates degrees, with a quarter of those students having entered high school below grade level in at least one subject.

“We’re excited,” Brown said. “(The expansion) is just going to give more students the opportunity to leave high school with a free degree and free certifications.”

While CEC’s schools receive per-pupil funding from the state like other public schools, Brown said CEC just closed on a $44 million bond issue to help fuel the school’s growth. The organization also has a model of owning its buildings and leasing out a portion to other users to help generate revenue, though Brown said the plan is for the new Fort Collins high school to use up all of 4424 Innovation Drive.