Southern Colorado schools secure funds for campus improvements despite declining grant money
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Southern Colorado schools continue to receive BEST grant funding from the Colorado Department of Education despite decreased chances, as the total funds distributed the past two years has declined by 80%.
BEST funds are used to improve the health, safety, security, and technology in public schools. The money comes from income earned from the Colorado State Land Board, marijuana excise taxes, spillover from the Colorado Lottery, and interest earned.
The Colorado Department of Education declined an interview about the BEST funds but said if those revenue sources decline, so too does the grant. And that’s what’s happening.
From 2018 to 2021, the average amount of BEST funds the state distributed to Colorado schools was $233 million. That amount has since nosedived to about $100 million in the last two years. With less money, receiving BEST funds is becoming rarer.
“It's actually pretty rare for schools to be accepted for BEST funding the first time they apply, so we're really lucky that we were for this project,” said Calley Mannion, the development director at Atlas Preparatory Schools.
However, this year, Southern Colorado schools beat the odds, receiving nearly half of the $100 million in BEST grant funds.
Atlas Preparatory, a charter school in Colorado Springs, received $14 million to renovate and expand its middle school. Right now the school is a repurposed strip mall from 2009.
“Converted strip malls definitely aren’t built to be a learning environment, to begin with,” Mannion said.
The $14 million grant, plus $6 million of Atlas Prep’s money, will help tear down one of the repurposed strip mall buildings and construct a new building that will include seventh and eighth-grade classrooms, a gym, and a cafeteria.
Mannion said it will make the campus safer for its 500 middle school students, as the current building has 27 exterior doors.
“That's not a safe learning environment for students for there to be exterior doors in every single classroom,” she said. “The impact of our grant is going to stretch so far. It impacts hundreds of students every day.”
Canon City High School could receive the second largest amount of any school — $23 million. But its grant depends on voters approving a bond for the project, as the school has to contribute nearly $12 million of its own funds. The money will be used to replace a wing of the high school.
Rocky Ford received $6 million to fix the roof of its junior/senior high school. District 70 in Pueblo also got about $500,000 to upgrade its fire alarms.
In spite of the declining BEST grant funds in recent years, Southern Colorado schools have defied the odds and secured a significant portion of the reduced funds.
