This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.
By Ann Schimke, Chalkbeat
A controversial “public Christian school” in southern Colorado will eventually be allowed to occupy the property it was forced to vacate for safety reasons in January after a key decision by the Pueblo County Board of Commissioners Thursday morning.
After some tense exchanges, the board voted 2-1 to grant a special use permit that will allow Riverstone Academy to return to its original location in a light industrial area near concrete, landscaping, and machine shop businesses. The approval ran contrary to a February vote by the county planning commission recommending the permit be denied over safety concerns.
Thursday’s decision represents a victory for Riverstone, but the elementary school won’t be able to return to its original site right away. School officials will be required to make building and property improvements and then get approval from local officials. It’s not clear how long that will take.
Riverstone, which advertises itself as a public school that offers a “Christian foundation,” has generated controversy for months. School founders didn’t follow routine steps to ensure the school’s building met health and safety standards before opening to about 30 students last August. By January, local officials ordered Riverstone officials to close its building, and after initially fighting the effort, school leaders agreed.
In addition, emails obtained by Chalkbeat indicate Riverstone was created to spark a lawsuit over public funding for religious schools that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The school, which is currently receiving state funding, sued the state in February, alleging it would be religious discrimination if the state eventually decides to claw back the funding.
While school officials have refused in the last six weeks to divulge Riverstone’s temporary location, it appears to be operating out of Christ Church Pueblo West, about 13 miles away from its original location. On a recent sunny afternoon at the school’s advertised dismissal time, a string of parents emerged from the church’s front door, trailed by children carrying backpacks. Some parents stopped to chat with each other in the parking lot, while others went straight to their cars.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, when Commissioner Miles Lucero, a Democrat, asked Riverstone Executive Director Quin Friberg, where the school is currently operating, Friberg confirmed that it’s in a church but wouldn’t say which one.
“I think it’s a safety concern,” said Friberg. “There is so much public attention on this right now.”
But he also acknowledged that the location is something of an open secret, saying, “Multiple media [members] know where the building is. It’s not that private at this point.”
Lucero, who was the one commissioner to vote against the special use permit, said his interest in knowing the temporary location is related to safety. It’s unclear if Christ Church Pueblo West meets health and safety standards required for elementary schools.
Friberg told Lucero he would call him and share the school’s location.
Among the issues discussed at Thursday’s special use permit hearing were the traffic volume in front of Riverstone’s original building, whether parents have the expertise needed to determine school site safety, and why Riverstone leaders sometimes call the school public and other times private.
Some members of the planning commission raised concerns in February that a child could get run over by a cement truck or other kinds of heavy machinery that travel the road.
Chairman Zach Swearingen and Commissioner Paula McPheeters, both Republicans who both voted in favor of the permit, said traffic at the original site is relatively light and doesn’t pose a risk to children.
“I sat there myself to observe it,” said McPheeters, who recently visited the Aspen Circle location. ”And as a parent of children, watching the traffic … I couldn’t, in my own experience, see why it wouldn’t be acceptable.”
The father of a Riverstone student who spoke Thursday said he felt his child is in a safe environment. But others who spoke in opposition felt the planning commission’s denial recommendation held more weight.
One public commenter, Andrea Naglich, who is part of a local school board watchdog group called #WeAreD70, suggested that McPheeters had a conflict of interest in voting on the Riverstone permit.
“There is a documented relationship between Commissioner McPheeters and the leadership connected to Riverstone Academy and related organizations,” including Friberg, she said.
McPheeters and Friberg helped found Forging Pueblo, a group that aims to “Impact Pueblo with a biblical worldview.” McPheeters served on the group’s board until 2023. Forging Education, the Christian group that operates Riverstone Academy, is an offshoot of Forging Pueblo.
McPheeters said she has remained “completely neutral” on the topic of Riverstone.
“And yet, there are those in the community accusing me of a conflict of interest because of my affiliations, because I might go to church with someone, or have worked [on] a project [with] someone.”
She suggested that Lucero had compromised himself by recently attending a Pueblo 70 school board meeting and asking the board to end the agreement that allows Riverstone to be located within district boundaries.
Lucero said he did that because of Riverstone’s refusal to explain where the school was located following the closure of its original building.
“The reason is … because to this day, Riverstone Academy has been unwilling to tell us where these children are,” he said.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
