The Falcon School District 49 Board of Education discussed avenues to increase enrollment and revenue at their regularly scheduled August meeting.Expansion possibilities“We are a district without boundaries,” said Board Treasurer Andy Holloman. “We are a district without walls. It is not about spending more, it is about what revenue we can drive so innovation is not just happening in the classroom.”The board discussed the idea of a possible military academy and expanding the Falcon Virtual Academy, which is outgrowing its facility. The academy shares space with the Falcon Homeschool Enrichment Program; five students are currently enrolled in the program.Out of the 300 students at the Virtual Academy, 117 are from areas outside the district, said Dave Knoke, principal.”Everything we do is breaking down the borders between parents and kids – breaking down this antagonistic process,” Knoke said. “We have developed this social community to get kids to share things they normally would not share.”The Virtual Academy collaborates with the Vista Ridge Zone, where students visit both schools to share curriculum resources. The academy also established memorandums of understanding with other districts for students to share AP courses. And the academy partners with a school in Winter Park, Colo.Holloman suggested a “warehouse environment type” facility along the Woodmen corridor for the academy.”We have a lot of kids that go out of our district, and now we are starting to get some of them back,” said Dave Martin, board president. “We started this with the Virtual Academy and the charter, and now we are looking at the military academy.”The military academy would be considered a college preparatory charter school. Brigadier Gen. Richard Geraci, a retired United States Army commandant of cadets and dean of students at the New Mexico Military Institute, addressed the board.A military academy is standardized and organized, focusing on the whole person, Geraci said.”You are putting your students in a construct where some lead and some follow. When your student body is organized, they seem to be a lot more focused to the mission and the mission is to learn,” Geraci said.The academy would include mandatory study hall through tutors, extracurricular activities and a color guard.”The bridge is when those kids come into the classroom they are ready to learn. They are not worried about piercings,” Geraci said. “You’re dealing with a population that was having problems lighting up – that is the problem I dealt with,” Geraci said. “They are happy, because they have left and right limits. They have a degree of predictability.”Geraci recommended about 100 students per class. He also said to be eligible for state funding the academy should not include “Colorado Springs” as part of its formal name.The military academy could be established through the district or as a charter school. A draft request for proposal would be required.More cutsHolloman said the worst case scenario is a potential $250 million in budget cuts throughout the state.”We’re looking at another four and a half to four million in cuts this year,” he said. “Our budget is 72 million per year. Sometimes you can trip over dollars and pick up dollars. We have some big decisions coming up.”After the meeting adjourned, Holloman added, “I am worried about being effective, because of the cuts. If we don’t have kids, we don’t have revenue. We’ve got great people. If we can take advantage of that, we will free up resources.”The BOE approved the following items:The revision of BOE policiesA communications and public affairs contractFood service for Rocky Mountain Classical Academy Secondary Campus and The Imagine Indigo RanchColorado School Medicaid Consortium ServiceA $35,317 capital improvement project for window replacement at Evans Elementary and Patriot Learning Center
