At the opening of the new school year, Colorado Springs School District 11 placed Orton Academy, a charter school, inside the Trailblazer Elementary building, a move that drew immediate pushback from parents, students, and the local teachers union.
Trailblazer Elementary enrolls students from preschool through fifth grade, with building capacity of 550 and current attendance of roughly 240. Before the relocation, Orton Academy — which serves second through eighth graders — had been operating out of a church basement. District officials said the move was intended to make productive use of underutilized space and to expand learning options for students with different educational needs.
The physical changes were immediately felt by students. One fifth grader at Trailblazer described the situation as strange, saying, "we split the school and we only have half of it." Parents reported disruptions to everyday routines, including children eating meals in classrooms or outside rather than in shared common areas. One parent told FOX21 that her family had received no advance warning about any of the changes — she only learned what was happening when her daughter described the new rules after the first day. "No one told me that my kids were going to be eating outside until I picked up my daughter and asked her how her day was, and she started telling me about the new rules and all the new things that are going on," the parent said.
Beyond space issues, some parents questioned how public money is being directed toward charter school operations. One parent said, "I feel like public allocated funds should not be used for charter schools' profit, and I don't think that it's fair that a charter school can hop in and benefit off of a building and community that us as parents and as taxpayers have willingly paid for." District officials pushed back on that framing, with the executive director of engagement explaining that charter schools pay rent for the space they occupy and arguing that the district has a responsibility to make the fullest possible use of facilities taxpayers have already funded.
Staff facilities also became a point of contention, as a new teacher lounge for Trailblazer employees is still under construction and faculty have been using a temporary outdoor structure in the meantime. The district's engagement director disputed characterizations of the structure as a shed, describing it instead as a climate-controlled container with windows and refrigeration, and said it is not intended to be a permanent solution: "It's a lovely space, but it is not meant to be a permanent space. And we'll get them into that brand new teacher's lounge as soon as possible."
Administrators on both sides of the arrangement described benefits they expect from the shared building. The Orton Academy principal characterized the setup as a strong partnership between two programs with distinct specialties, saying it positions the district to serve both neurodivergent learners and students in general education. The Trailblazer principal noted the school was already drawing families who have one child suited to Orton's program and another who benefits from a more conventional classroom setting.
The Colorado Springs Education Association raised alarms about what the co-location means for Trailblazer's teachers. The union's president called the arrangement "yet another example of this school board's brazen corruption," describing it as "a unilateral transfer of millions in our taxpayer dollars to an unaccountable private entity, all without community input and prior to school board approval." District 11 had not issued a public response to the union's statement at the time of reporting.
Whether the District 11 board will hold a formal vote on the co-location — and whether mounting pressure from parents and the union will alter the current arrangement — remains an open question.