31 Colorado charter schools closed in the last decade. Still, school choice demand is peaking.

Inside the halls of Axis International Academy, one isn’t sure which language they’ll hear when they walk into a classroom. Kindergartners learn to write Chinese characters just down the hall from first graders practicing their French pronunciations.

In another wing on a recent Monday, fourth and fifth graders spent the morning preparing for their science fair, listing different types of liquids in Spanish before they transitioned to their afternoon classes during which they would learn in English.

But, come August, these children won't be learning languages, eating lunch in a cafeteria adorned with flags from around the world or roaming the halls of the west Fort Collins building; Axis, one of the most recent charter schools to open in Fort Collins, will be moving to another location.

The decision to move came after Colorado Early Colleges, which shares a building with Axis, announced it would close the location at the end of the current school year due to low enrollment projections.

With the departure of Axis and closure of CEC, the school building on the corner of Horsetooth and Taft Hill roads will have housed three different charter schools in four years, all of which will have left shortly after opening in the space.

More: Liberty Common Elementary School announces expansion, likely into former charter building

Colorado charter schools struggle to stay open

As Colorado experiences rapid population growth and parents place added value on autonomy and school choice, the number of public charter schools hoping to provide alternatives to district-run neighborhood schools has risen by more than 34 schools in the past five years.

From 2010 to 2018, an average of 13 new charter schools opened annually across Colorado, according to the Colorado Department of Education’s 2019 State of Charter Schools in Colorado report.

The report showed that nearly 3.5 charter schools closed each year over that same period.

Essentially, for every four charter schools that open each year in Colorado, one closes. That volatility can create added social and emotional strain to students and families tasked with finding new community supports and educational opportunities upon a school's closure.

More: Wondering about Colorado's charter schools? Here are 4 things to know.

Neighborhood public schools don't see nearly the same closure rates. In Poudre School District, no neighborhood schools have closed in the last decade, according to a district spokesperson. In Thompson School District, a spokesperson said just two schools have closed in the last decade and both buildings were repurposed for district needs.

Experts across the state attribute charter school volatility to high facility and startup costs combined with low funding relative to district-run neighborhood schools, and the challenge of staying on top of finances and operations in a school's early years.

Colorado charter school experts and local charter school leaders spoke to the Coloradoan about the unique challenges these organizations face, and how they can be navigated.

‘We do it all ourselves:’ Funding, financial knowledge are crucial to success

Terry Croy Lewis, executive director of the Colorado Charter School Institute, said the No. 1 reason that charter schools close are financial and operational challenges.

Charter schools operate either through a school district or the state and are funded with private dollars, donations and per-pupil revenue from the state. But, unlike neighborhood schools, charter schools don’t benefit from additional taxpayer funding through things like mill levies or bonds.

Because of that, the money they receive per pupil has to be split between operational costs — like building fees and teacher salaries — and learning costs. Charters can get money through loans, private donations, grants offered through the state or private organizations or other fundraising efforts, but the path to funding is simply more difficult.

Public neighborhood schools, on the other hand, fund new buildings through taxpayer dollars, meaning they can spend the state’s per pupil revenue fully for schooling purposes.

Croy Lewis said CSI works with schools to help get funding, but the organization is limited. “We don't have near the resources that a district has,” she said of CSI, which approves charters for new schools applying through the state.

“You're trying to purchase everything you need, you're trying to be competitive in terms of teacher salaries, trying to get a facility, maybe renovate that facility,” she said. “So, you know, funding does matter.”

But getting funding is only half the battle: Once a school secures funding, its leaders need to know what to do with it.

How easy is it to open a charter school?

Drew Goltermann, director of new school development for the Colorado League of Charter Schools, echoed Croy Lewis’ emphasis on funding and said one of the most common issues he sees when a school is starting is a lack of training in operations among leadership.

In Colorado, there are no restrictions regarding who can apply to open a charter school. Organizations like the League recommend having a steering committee with broad expertise, but individuals can also turn to consultants to fill gaps on their teams.

To formally apply, the founders must fill out a charter application, a comprehensive document that asks for things ranging from the school's mission and vision to food and transportation services to how students will be evaluated, to be submitted to either CSI or their home district. They are also evaluated on proof of need for the school in the desired area and the school's plan for operations and staffing, among other things.

“When schools are in their foundation they need to be really mindful about the steering committees, the sounding boards, the partnerships that they build,” Goltermann said, adding that it helps to have people who are experts in real estate, finance, marketing and more who can serve different roles.

“It's impossible to expect anybody to be an expert in all of those areas and so you really want to encourage that when people are building up their team of founders to be really mindful.”

Kari Calarco, principal and co-founder of Axis, believes broad expertise on the school's board and use of mentorship offerings helped them be successful, despite never having operated a school in a non-pandemic year.

They were conscious when building their board, Calarco said, to have people with varying expertise and experiences rather than trying to be the experts in every topic.

Even so, there is a lot of responsibility on founders and school leadership and she understands how it could be overwhelming and lead to troubles.

"We do it all ourselves, without the help of a district that would usually do these things for schools," Calarco said.

For example, Axis relies on word of mouth for marketing — something neighborhood schools don't have to worry about — and Calarco's co-founder Jenny Whitaker taught herself school and nonprofit finance. The pair created and defined job listings themselves — all without the help, knowledge or oversight a district school would have.

Goltermann said that oftentimes if a school fails, its leadership simply wasn’t prepared for the undertaking of running a school from a business standpoint.

“Really, running a school is running a nonprofit business,” he said. “You have to have a really strong and solid operational and business acumen and I think that's something that a lot of schools are not fully prepared for.”

Charter schools: Proposed Windsor charter school won't receive Weld RE-4 land, will seek other options

High cost, low availability of facilities present challenges

Before it housed CEC and Axis, the building on the corner of Horsetooth and Taft Hill roads was built for and home to Global Village Academy, a charter that opened in 2013.

But the school operated there just five years before it was ordered to close by CSI, in part because of “persistent financial risk (and) leadership and governance instability.”

At the time it closed in 2018, Global Village's building — which housed three different tenants, “one of whom had a history of failing to pay rent” — had a $315,000 annual rental cost, according to previous Coloradoan reporting.

Representatives from Global Village Charter Collaborative, which operates schools in Aurora, Northglenn and Parker, did not respond to the Coloradoan's request for comment. A Colorado Springs campus cut ties with the collaborative in 2019.

Croy Lewis and Goltermann both said facility costs are another of the main reasons a charter school is forced to close, and that Colorado’s skyrocketing rental prices are only worsening the matter.

A study done on facility costs for charter schools in Colorado in 2018 found that new school operators faced challenges in “obtaining facilities in areas where real estate costs continue to rise.”

The analysis found that 17% of schools had to delay their opening date due to “facilities-related issues,” ranging from financing, acquiring property or land, construction or lack of facilities in the area.

“Facilities is huge,” Croy Lewis said. “How do we secure a facility that's going to meet the needs of our school? Particularly if the desire is to start small and grow, you can imagine that is really challenging to do, to pay for a large building when you want to start small.

"So how do you find that facility, especially (with) how things have changed in Colorado in the last 20 years, and afford it?”

There are a number of different paths charters can take when looking for a location, ranging from working with districts to get unused space to renting space from a nonprofit like a church to acquiring land and building a school from scratch.

When it leaves its current building at the end of the year, Axis will move into Clearwater Church, which previously housed Ascent Classical Academy before it moved to Windsor in January. Calarco and Whitaker said the Clearwater space was originally where the school wanted to open, but they began in the shared school building to save money and grow enrollment. By moving into a space already prepared to house a charter, the school can also save money on renovations and equipment that would need to be bought if it was building from scratch.

Goltermann said there’s no “best” option, it’s just crucial that school leaders are willing to be creative with their locations, something leaders of American Legacy Academy, a charter school working towards opening locations in Windsor and Severance, are learning now.

The school hopes to open in the fall of 2023 and be chartered through Weld RE-4. But it can’t open without a building, and its board of directors has yet to secure a location.

On Monday, the school board for the Windsor and Severance district voted not to give the charter district the main property it was eyeing for its Windsor location, citing the need for more information from the community.

Chairman of the school’s board Julie Babcock said the district's decision was disappointing, but they won't be deterred. They have not identified other possible locations in the area but are working with the district to. In the meantime, Babcock said they will look for rental space to operate out of until they secure a place for their building.

Windsor charter proposal: Proposed Windsor charter school won't receive Weld RE-4 land, will seek other options

Opening now is ‘more challenging than ever,’ but the need for options persists

Despite the challenges, experts say demand for charters is clear, so people will likely keep starting them knowing there’s a risk of failure.

Last year, the charter school institute was one of few public school “districts” in Colorado that saw an increase in enrollment, and local leaders say waitlists have gotten longer and parents have regularly shown more interest.

“The number of high quality seats that are needed for students hasn't changed. It is still there, and the need is there,” Goltermann said. “So ultimately, if what we care about is … that every student should have access to high quality education, that is not a true statement right now. And therefore, whatever the challenges may be, it's still important that we do this work.”

Ensuring that students have access to education and options is more than just opening schools, however. According to Croy Lewis, even if the desire is there for options, leaders and founders need to have a strong sense of what potential families want out of the school and how it can set itself apart from other offerings.

“You may have the most amazing school model that you think is just perfect for this community, but if the community is not interested, and they don't see a need … then you're never going to get the enrollment,” she said.

Liberty Common Charter School Headmaster Bob Schaffer believes one of the reasons his Fort Collins school has been so successful for more than two decades is because when it opened, it offered something the community wanted and no other school was offering — a classical education — and it has kept a focus on that original vision.

“If schools do not think through, in their early days, how to preserve their mission, the integrity of their mission and their vision, well then it gets lost as kids come and go,” Schaffer said. “The schools that have endured, like Liberty … found a good way early on to establish clear communication to the future.”

Now, even knowing the challenges Liberty is up against, the school hopes to expand to accommodate the 800 people Schaffer said are on its waitlist — "families that want this product, and this kind of education, and they can't get it,” he said. “I believe we have an obligation to those families to try to serve our community."

On Wednesday, Schaffer announced Liberty Common plans to expand by opening a second elementary school in the building at Horsetooth and Taft Hill roads in the fall of 2022 after Axis and CEC have left the facility.

In Windsor, American Legacy Academy board member Cheryl Brown is sure the need and want for diverse curricula is there — “We instantly knew that they were asking us to create something totally different than what was being offered to the current public schools” — but she also sees the school as addressing the district’s needs.

In the Weld RE-4 district now, four of the nine school buildings are operating at over 100% capacity. And because American Legacy Academy doesn’t need to pass a bond to fund the building of its school like the district would — it just needs to secure private funding — it can provide students a place to go sooner than a new neighborhood school.

ALA has more than 400 letters of interest from families who indicated they may send their child there, according to Brown and Babcock, which would help alleviate the crowded schools, and said they expect more once they announce a location for the school.

Croy Lewis said when charters work alongside districts to address issues like this, it can be “really positive for the community.”

“It's a very intentional, purposeful kind of growth plan that can meet the needs both of the district and then the people that are living in the district, the community,” she said.

American Legacy Academy submitted its application to Weld RE-4 on Monday and will receive a decision from the school board by early July. Though writing the charter application and making her way through the many challenges of starting a school has not been an easy task, Babcock said she believes the work will be worth it when she sees children in the hallways of a school providing a unique education.

“It is probably more challenging now than ever,” Goltermann said of opening a successful charter in today’s climate. “It still is really important.”

Molly Bohannon covers education for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @molboha or contact her at mbohannon@coloradoan.com.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: 31 Colorado charter schools have closed. Still, demand is peaking