WEEK OF MAY 22, 2025
VOLUME 130 | ISSUE 12
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Three charter schools pitch Castle Rock campuses BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Best-selling author and Colorado native Shelley Read , left, and Elizabeth Library Manager Sarah Coleman pose with Read’s book, “Go As A River,” PHOTO BY NICKY QUINBY before Read spoke to community members during her visit on May 3.
BY NICKY QUINBY SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
On May 3, the Friends of the Elizabeth Library and Pines & Plains Libraries hosted a private author’s visit, featuring best-selling author and native Coloradan Shelley Read. Read,
the author of “Go As A River,” spoke for about an hour and took questions and lingered to personally greet people. The visit was so well-attended that overflow seating in the meeting room was necessary. It’s no surprise community members were excited to meet
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Read — book clubs throughout the Pines & Plains Library District prepared for her visit by reading and discussing her novel. Read was a lively and engaging speaker. Attendees laughed along with her and, at some points, were even moved to tears. Bev McGuire, a member of the Elbert Library Book Club, said she’s seen Read once before at the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs.
What the schools propose
McGuire said Read was amazing. “If she was talking anywhere I’d go listen to her again,” she shared. Read began by encouraging everyone present to pursue creativity, whatever form that might take. It’s “never too late to tell your story, sing your song,” she said. “You have a story no other human being can tell.”
Renaissance, an arts-integrated model that currently operates a secondary program in Castle Rock, is seeking to unify and expand those campuses into a comprehensive PK-12 charter school. Renaissance Elementary is a magnet school and is separate from the charter. Leman Academy, which is based in Arizona, wants to replicate its classical K-8 model that emphasizes “a rigorous, back-to-basics curriculum rooted in the classical tradition of education,” according to its application. The network currently operates two schools in the district: one
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Elizabeth Library audience meets author Shelley Read is native Coloradan who wrote the novel ”Go As A River”
Three new charter school applications currently under review by the Douglas County School District share something in common: they all want to open in Castle Rock. Renaissance Secondary Charter School, Leman Academy of Excellence and STEM School Castle Rock each presented proposals to expand or replicate to the school board during a May 6 meeting. All three are targeting the same general area of Castle Rock, along with similar grade configurations and timelines for opening. That overlap raised immediate questions about the long-term sustainability of adding multiple new schools to one geographic area. “I’m looking at three new charters for Castle Rock,” said Board Member Brad Geiger. “Each model is different, but I worry there’s not enough student demand to fill them all. It’s not that Castle Rock doesn’t need more options — it’s whether the student population is large enough to support three new schools in the same area.” According to their applications, Leman projects an eventual enrollment of more than 1,000 students, while Renaissance Secondary and STEM also propose serving hundreds across multiple grades.
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