From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Peak to Peak Charter School
Peak to Peak Charter School
Peak to Peak Charter School all of BVSD, and the third-highest for the entire state of
Colorado.[1]
History
Conception and Initial Proposal
The school was first discussed among about a dozen peo-
ple in November 1997. Those gathered were concerned
about possible limits to open enrollment opportunities
in BVSD and wanted to offer families a K – 12 college
preparatory charter school option.
The writing of Peak to Peak’s original charter school
proposal started soon after that original meeting, and
Location several more people joined the group. Included in this
effort were people who had been involved in a number
800 Merlin Drive, Lafayette CO, 80026
of BVSD choice schools, including High Peaks Elementary
United States
School, Burbank Core Knowledge Middle School, Summit
Information Middle Charter School, Horizons Charter School, and
Type Charter
Community Montessori. That group worked over the
next several months to write the proposal, which was
Established 1999 submitted to BVSD on May 26, 1998.
School Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) Peak to Peak’s proposal to BVSD is available on Peak
district to Peak’s website. It identifies the foundation for Peak
to Peak’s vision and contains the school’s mission state-
Principal Kyle Matthews
ment, goals, and objectives. In addition, the proposal out-
Staff 127 lines in objective terms how Peak to Peak will know if it
has reached its goals.
Grades K-12
Following the submission of Peak to Peak’s proposal
Enrollment Through BVSD Open Enrollment process to BVSD, Peak to Peak’s original founders and newly
Number of Approximately 1,300 elected Board of Directors worked over the summer of
students 1998. That work included holding public meetings to in-
form people about the newly proposed school, inviting
Campus Semi-Open
others to become subscribers, continuing work on the
type
curriculum, grant writing, searching for a facility, and
Color(s) Black, Blue, and White negotiating with BVSD.
Athletics Soccer, Hockey, Baseball, Golf, Volleyball, Peak to Peak’s proposal was approved by BVSD in Au-
Basketball, Cross Country Running, Track and gust 1998.
Field,
Mascot Puma
Contract Negotiations
The approval of Peak to Peak’s original proposal meant
Website http://www.peaktopeak.org/
that the school was approved as a concept, but a contract
outlining specific obligations for both parties still had to
Peak to Peak Charter School is a K-12 public college-
be negotiated. Many details had to be resolved to com-
preparatory charter school located in Lafayette,
plete that contract, but the two most difficult items relat-
Colorado, and is part of the Boulder Valley School District
ed to budget and facilities. There were many fine points
(BVSD).
regarding the budget, from the amount to be received
Peak to Peak is a member of the North Central As-
from BVSD’s various funds to the services that BVSD re-
sociation of Colleges and Schools, and its 2005-2006 se-
quired Peak to Peak to purchase. However, the largest ne-
nior class had the highest ACT score average (25.0) for
gotiating obstacle was centered on facilities. BVSD had a
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Peak to Peak Charter School
number of under-enrolled schools at the time of Peak to Early the next morning, before the rest of the com-
Peak’s original proposal, so the founders requested that munity could be notified of the vote, everything changed.
the school share one of BVSD’s underutilized buildings. An earlier real estate contact returned a call about a real
Unfortunately, the resolution approving Peak to Peak’s estate sign that had been seen in Broomfield. The realtor
proposal specifically stated that Peak to Peak would not indicated that the specific commercial building really
be sited in a BVSD-owned facility. would not fit the school’s needs, but mentioned that he
The facilities provision was extremely problematic was about to list a day care center on Excalibur Street in
due to the high price of real estate in Boulder County. Of Lafayette. The wheels were again turning! That morning,
the previously approved BVSD charter schools, two were a Peak to Peak board member went to the school to deter-
located in BVSD facilities and two that were denied dis- mine whether it held any hope, and a showing was sched-
trict space never got off the ground. The two schools that uled for that evening. While too small to house all of the
were not given a facility were unable to secure a build- students who had accepted enrollment into Peak to Peak,
ing on a charter school’s limited budget. Thus, they never it was an option, and, within 24 hours of the initial real-
opened. tor’s call, Peak to Peak had signed a contract for the di-
After nearly a year of negotiations and thousands of sheveled, little day care center.
hours of work, Peak to Peak’s contract with BVSD was The next step was working with the City of Lafayette
approved by the school board. On May 13, 1999, Peak to obtain a zoning change. The City’s application dead-
to Peak was officially approved as a charter school by a line was fast approaching, and the approval or denial
five to two vote. Supporters included Janusz Okolowicz, vote would not occur until August 28, two days after oth-
Don Shonkwiler, Stan Garnett, Bill De La Cruz, and Julie er BVSD schools had already begun classes.
Phillips. Voting in opposition were Jean Bonelli and Linda Peak to Peak was determined to provide a school to
Shoemaker. Unfortunately, Peak to Peak still needed a fa- those who were willing to take a chance on the
cility. Lafayette’s approval. Nine days after the real estate con-
tract was signed, a complete zoning application including
Facility Acquisition a site plan, landscaping plan, traffic analysis, and a sum-
Originally, the founders of Peak to Peak planned to open mary of how Peak to Peak complements Lafayette’s Com-
a high school as the first stage of a full K-12 campus. prehensive Plan was submitted at 4:58 p.m., two minutes
Following the May 1999 contract approval, months were before the application deadline. The Mayor of Lafayette,
spent trying to secure a location for that program. who lived in the neighborhood that housed the little day
When the facility challenges became too great, the care center was there, waiting to see if Peak to Peak made
Board of Directors and the “subscribers” who had joined the deadline. Several weeks later, on August 28, 2000, af-
the effort before the contract was signed shifted their fo- ter much work answering questions to the City and or-
cus to opening an elementary school. The group worked ganizing for the public meeting, the Lafayette Planning
with Terry O’Connor, a local developer who was planning Commission approved the zoning request and Peak to
a new building in Louisville’s Colorado Tech Center Peak had a facility!
(CTC). Technical issues created problems at that site, and We were elated to have a building. Unfortunately, the
the founders contracted to lease an available CTC build- facility would hold only 200 of the 300 students enrolled
ing that was owned by the same developer. Site plans, for the upcoming school year. Options were considered
which included a circular drive, a playground, and land- and a creative solution was developed. Peak to Peak held
scaping, were submitted to the City of Louisville. Un- a meeting for all of Peak to Peak’s families and informed
fortunately, a neighbor opposed the efforts and worked them that the school would prefer a regular school year
hard to galvanize opposition. On July 5, 2000, with 300 calendar but was willing to move to a year-round calen-
students enrolled and an additional 300 on the waitlist, dar in order to accommodate all of those enrolled. As a
the Louisville City Council turned down Peak to Peak’s result of this announcement, a number of families vol-
proposal. untarily left, leaving just the right number of students of
With only six weeks until school was to start, a group 197 to start in September on a regular school year calen-
continued its efforts to look for any alternative site. dar.
Every area municipality was contacted, real estate was During all of the uncertainty that summer, Peak to
combed, miles were driven, and a deadline for finding a Peak founders, subscribers, now joined by the newly en-
site was established. On July 26 that deadline arrived and rolled families, had to continue their incredible work. If
no site had been secured. In one of Peak to Peak’s bleak- a building was miraculously secured, the school had to
est moments, having run out of facility options, on July be ready to open in the fall. So, work continued. Curricu-
26 Peak to Peak’s Board of Directors voted to end efforts lum continued to be developed, grants continued to be
to open in the fall of 2000; knowing that the vote could written, administrators and teachers were hired, and the
mean the end of Peak to Peak. furniture and textbooks needed to start a school were
acquired. All of this happened with no certainty that a
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Peak to Peak Charter School
building would come through. The Acquisition Commit- property to the north or over a railroad track to the east.
tee continued to follow every lead in an effort to furnish Neither seemed feasible and Peak to Peak was again faced
our building on a very limited budget. That first year, with the possibility of not being able to house its stu-
they hit the jackpot and nearly filled the entire school dents. BVSD turned down the request to build a drive
with used white boards, teacher desks and chairs, con- through its property, but indications from the railroad
ference tables, filing cabinets, and bookcases for a total were positive, and in July 2001, Lafayette approved Peak
price tag of $600! Teacher desks were purchased for $20 to Peak’s application with the condition that the second
a piece, and the accompanying chairs each cost $20. Only drive be constructed.
$10,000 was spent on the first library. That money went Financing for the new school was obtained on July 26,
toward the purchase of a set of Core Knowledge books with the sale of an $18.8 million bond. Peak to Peak made
and a cataloging/circulation system that included a scan- history as the first charter school in the country to sell
ner and computer. Yet, the school opened with a collec- bonds after one year of operation; the bonds were over-
tion of 3,000 donated books. After purchasing new stu- subscribed and sold out within two hours. The bonds, un-
dent desks, lunch tables, and several miscellaneous derwritten by Kirkpatrick Pettis, were to be repaid out of
items, this amazing team furnished the school for under Peak to Peak’s operational budget over 30 years. In 2004,
$35,000. No money was spent on storage, and only $1,000 Peak to Peak reduced our bond’s interest rate and saved
was spent for moving and labor. This compares to the over $1 million over the life of the loan. When Peak to
roughly $450,000 normally spent at other public schools Peak issued its original bonds at 8.31%, the bonds were
of comparable size. rated speculative by Moody’s Investor Services. Stan-
With remarkable tenacity and immeasurable hard dards and Poors has now rated Peak to Peak ’s bonds in-
work, the Peak to Peak community cleaned and renovat- vestment grade. With the State of Colorado’s moral oblig-
ed the newly acquired building in one week. This hard ation backing and the purchase of bond insurance, Peak
work enabled Peak to Peak to begin its first day of school to Peak issued bonds with a AAA rating at a new interest
on September 4, 2000, one week after receiving approval rate of 5.18 percent.
from the Lafayette Planning Commission to operate in Following the end of the 2001-2002 school year, the
the newly renovated day care building. original building on Excalibur was sold. One year after
This building worked well for Peak to Peak’s first year construction began, in September 2002, Peak to Peak
of operation, but was not large enough to house the proudly opened the doors of its newly constructed three-
school’s growth. So, efforts began immediately to accom- building campus to its approximately 1,000 students. The
modate Peak to Peak’s expected enrollment. Another real buildings were completed on time and under budget.
estate search began, and two attempts were made to se- With each growth year, parents, teachers, and staff
cure a site before Peak to Peak successfully located a worked together and an amazing volunteer effort was
26-acre (110,000 m2) site on Merlin Drive in Lafayette. A staged. Working with staff, volunteers wrote and orga-
contract was signed to purchase the property for the per- nized the City of Lafayette applications, managed the site
manent facility, while work simultaneously continued to development, hired teachers and staff, wrote grants,
accommodate the next year’s student growth. To tem- sought supplies and furniture at free or reduced rates,
porarily house its 607 students for the 2001-2002 school scrubbed buildings and equipment, and moved classroom
year, Peak to Peak operated on two sites. The school ob- supplies into the rooms.
tained Lafayette’s approval to place an 8,000-square-foot
(740 m2) modular building next to the former day care
building to increase that site’s capacity from approxi-
School Accomplishments
mately 200 to 300 students. Approval was also obtained Peak to Peak is the only public school in Boulder Valley
from Lafayette to place three modular buildings on the and the second in the State of Colorado to receive a Col-
new Merlin Drive campus site to house the additional lege Preparatory Accreditation from the North Central
312 students in grades 4-9. However, those temporary Association (NCA). The NCA has awarded the college
buildings were only approved for one year. With the im- preparatory accreditation to 240 private schools in its re-
pending one-year deadline to build a new campus and gion, while only 20 public schools have received this des-
remove the temporary buildings on June 22, 2001, Peak ignation.
to Peak again submitted a site application to the City of Peak to Peak Charter School is considered highly dec-
Lafayette to construct a comprehensive 97,000-square- orated. It has been named a John Irwin School of Excel-
foot (9,000 m2) K – 12 campus. lence several times, a direct result of the school’s "Excel-
Concern about whether an approval for the final cam- lent" CSAP score. Additionally, it was named the number
pus could be obtained arose when Lafayette indicated one High School in the Denver metro area by 5280, a Den-
that Peak to Peak needed an additional driveway to ac- ver lifestyle magazine, in August 2007. During the same
commodate expected traffic. There were only two ways year, they were also named number 47 on the US News
that another drive could be built, either through BVSD and World Report listing of best schools.[2]
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Peak to Peak Charter School
The number of National Merit Finalists at Peak to • 2011: girl’s Varsity Tennis team finished third in
Peak has traditionally been larger than the average Kent Denver School regional meet for their inaugural
statewide. In 2007 and 2008, thirteen students were given year at Peak to Peak Charter School. The three
this prestigious level of honor. doubles team qualified for their first 4A state
In 2008, Peak to Peak Charter School was ranked 40th competition appearance in Pueblo, Colorado.
in Newsweeks "Top 100 Public schools in the US." • 2011: girl’s Varsity soccer team finished second in
the Colorado 3A state soccer championship finals.
Athletics 2011: The Peak To Peak Cross Country Team is scheduled
to compete at the Stanford Meet this fall. Only the seven
Peak to Peak High School Athletic Program 9th in top runners will compete.(Or the next in line)
Colorado 3A
The Peak to Peak High School athletic program was
ranked 9th overall in the state among Class 3A high
Mascot
schools and 42nd overall among 330 Colorado high The mascot of Peak to Peak Charter School is a Puma.
schools in the February 2007 Mile High Sports Magazine. The school’s board of directors decided that the
The Mile High Sports ranking placed the Peak to Peak school would be better served as the Phoenix. Then in
program second best in the Boulder Valley School 2001 the school administration put it to Nick Gourgouris,
District.[3] an all around renaissance man, to make a change. This
• 2005: boys’ Varsity soccer team took the Colorado 3A time, given a range of choices, he chose the Puma as the
state soccer championship title.[citation needed] mascot because he had been raised by pumas in the ama-
• 2006: boys’ Varsity hockey team took the Colorado zon rainforest.
5A state hockey championship title.[citation needed]
• 2007: varsity Track and Field team sent seven
competitors to the state track meet. One student
References
became the state champion in the 100 meter and [1] Hatlestad, Luc (August 2007). "Best Colorado High
repeated as state champion in the 300 meter hurdles. Schools". http://www.5280.com/magazine/2007/
A girls’ relay team is the 4x400 meter relay 08/best-high-schools. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
champions. Another athlete finished third in the [2] Peak To Peak Charter School: Best High Schools -
boys 400 meter dash. USNews.com
• 2007: boys’ varsity Golf team won its first-ever [3] http://www.milehighsportsmagazine.com
regional golf title during the 4A Metro-East [4] http://www.coloradohometownnews.com
competition at Deer Creek Golf Course in Littleton on
Sept. 18th. The team now qualifies for state
competition.[4]
External links
• 2010: boy’s Varsity Cross-country Running places • Peak to Peak Charter School
first at the Metro League meet, defeating longtime Coordinates: 39°59′27.88″N 105°4′45.07″W / 39.9910778°N
rival Holy Family. 105.0791861°W / 39.9910778; -105.0791861
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peak_to_Peak_Charter_School&oldid=474151863"
Categories:
• Elementary schools in Colorado
• High schools in Colorado
• Middle schools in Colorado
• Charter schools in Colorado
• Schools in Boulder County, Colorado
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