4 minute read
Education Coalition to Start STEM School
By Jeanne Davant, Senior Writer
The leaders of an ecosystem composed of industry, government and education are working to create a unique charter school that will promote the learning of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at advanced levels.
Colorado Springs School District 11 has been tapped to host the charter school, called the Colorado Springs School of Technology. Characterized as a STEM Innovation Zone school, it will provide an environment where students can excel in the fields of space, technology, cybersecurity and entrepreneurship. But the school also will instill core values, including ethical leadership and social responsibility. The school will also integrate subjects such as history, literature, philosophy and the arts.
“Our vision is to cultivate students who merge technical proficiency with ethical values, encouraging them to become pioneers in critical fields,” the school’s website states.
The school initially will serve students in grades 9 and 10, but the plan is to expand to include grades 6-12, says Vance Brown, founder and CEO of Exponential Impact and a partner in the project. It will offer certifications so that students can go to work directly from high school, but it will also prepare students for advanced study at elite colleges.
At first, Brown explains, the school likely would be housed in existing facilities, but the founding consortium hopes eventually to build a new facility on North Nevada Avenue, adjacent to the building that houses the National Cybersecurity Center, the UCCS Cybersecurity Program, Exponential Impact and the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
“The goal is to have a corridor going into the UCCS space and to be physically located where you have professionals and students; where government, education and industry are rubbing shoulders and sharing coffee and hanging out together,” Brown says.
The school is the brainchild of a regional ecosystem composed of the U.S. Air Force Academy, UCCS, Pikes Peak State College, the National Cybersecurity Center, Space ISAC, The Space Foundation, Exponential Impact, Catalyst Campus for Technology & Innovation and the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC.
With the support of former Gov. John Hickenlooper, this ecosystem started coming together in 2016, Brown says.
The consortium applied for and won a $941,375 National Science Regional Innovation Engines Development grant in 2023 to ignite technological innovation and create economic opportunities. The project, called Advancing Space Technologies/Resilient Space Infrastructures, Systems and Economy (RISE), would focus on three pillars: technological innovation, accelerating commercialization and building community, policy and workforce. The first award will enable the consortium to apply for an additional $160 million grant from the NSF to formalize and implement the innovation engine over the next 10 years. According to an abstract about the grant, The RISE project will expand throughout Southern Colorado to include Pueblo, Trinidad and Cañon City, and possibly other nearby states.
“The consortium already has a global impact,” he says. “Imagine us working together more closely to solve some of these problems.”
Brown and the other leaders knew education would be a key part of creating this innovation engine, and they had started looking at workforce development needs even before applying for the grant.
Early efforts focused on higher education, but several years ago, Brown, who was one of the founders of the Classical Academy, thought, “Man, it would be cool if we had a high school. I brought it to the group to say, ‘Let’s do this.’”
The coalition decided not to wait until it received grant funds to start the school and approached District 11 about a partnership.
The leadership of District 11 liked the idea. The district’s board on Feb. 28 approved an application for an innovation zone that will be submitted to the state board of education. If it’s approved, the district will be able to start specialized STEM coursework in several locations, including the UCCS Cybersecurity and National Cybersecurity centers. Students also will be able to enroll in courses at UCCS and PPSC. The school is asking parents to visit its website and express interest in having their children attend. These expressions of interest will help obtain state board of education approval and determine when the school will open.
“Because we’re closely partnering with D11, we think they’ll give us some room within a school,” Brown says.
“If that’s the case, we hope to start on a limited basis in the fall of 2024.” A board of directors composed of leaders from each of the partnering organizations has been selected. Brown serves as president; he says, “... there is no other opportunity like this for students in our country.”
