Merit Academy Wishes to Purchase Building to Pay for Repairs
Trevor Phipps
*Editor’s Note: Retraction: The previous headline was unclear as the sale of the former Woodland Park Middle School building to Merit Academy was just discussed and not formally decided upon. *
After receiving backlash from Woodland Park city representatives and citizens for a proposed sale of the former middle school building to the Merit Academy Charter School, official discussions surrounding the transfer of the building are now buzzing, commanding central attention on social media outlets and throughout the community.
Decision time is looming for both the school district and for the Merit Academy, especially with a critical board election later this year.
And under the newest proposal, the Merit Academy would acquire the building for $1 (not this isn’t a typo or a TMJ April Fools story) in order to solve fiscal problems that the district and charter school are currently facing.
On March 10, the Woodland Park City Council held an emergency meeting during which they voted unanimously to immediately end the school-related sales tax increase (initially approved in 2016 and reaffirmed in Nov. 2024) going to support the district after catching a glimpse at the agenda for the board’s forthcoming session. The agenda contained an “action” item regarding the sale of the former Woodland Park Middle School building (now housing the Merit Academy) to the charter school for $5 million.
However, one aspect of the resolution to sell the building, stated that if the sales tax money went away, then the charter school would not have to pay money to own the facility. In essence, they would get it free and clear.
This stipulation angered council members. They perceived this as a way the school board was “holding the sales tax hostage” for the next several decades. (The original 1.09 city sales tax increase, aimed at benefitting the school district, never had any kind of sunset clause). Many said that the building sale proposal was the exact reason why the council decided to abruptly axe the sales tax monies, approved by the voters of Woodland Park.
But then during a school board meeting on March 12, the idea of selling the building to Merit Academy came up once again, with some RE-2 elected leaders wishing to hit the ground running on the sale process. School board members voiced their concerns about the future of Merit Academy if a new panel was elected in the future and chose to eliminate Merit Academy’s charter status or take away their building.
Dealing with a Deteriorating Facility
During a special joint work session between the Merit Academy and RE-2 boards on March 31, ideas on how to transfer the building to Merit Academy were discussed at length. According to Merit Academy officials, the main issue facing the charter school is how to pay for needed improvements to the former middle school building.
Merit Academy’s headmaster Gwynne Pekron said that the charter school pays for the building’s operations and “superficial maintenance.” But they have had issues regarding the district’s resources in dealing with serious facility woes.
Recently, issues with the parking lot led to the charter’s school’s choir room getting flooded. Pekron also said that the building has had electrical issues since it was built, which have caused staff members to get shocked.
“Those are all things that the district would be responsible for covering,” Pekron said. “Merit Academy would actually like to be able to cover that ourselves, but we cannot do that until we own the building. We cannot secure any kind of bond or COP (certificate of participation monies) without having the collateral.”
Pekron said that the district cannot currently afford the expected $3 million in repairs needed for the building, and that they shouldn’t get priority over repairs needed in other buildings. If Merit Academy owned the building, they could use it as a collateral to secure a loan to afford their own repairs. Therefore, the district would then not be on the hook for the $3 million in needed repairs and other maintenance costs of the former middle school building, which Merit Academy has utilized during the ’24-’25 school year.
Transferring Building Ownership
After some discussion, it boiled down to the fact that selling the building to Merit is the only option available since leasing it is illegal. In addition, a contract letting them use the building doesn’t give them the collateral needed to secure a loan. But opinions differed as to exactly how the building should be transferred
Board of Education Director Suzanne Patterson proposed transferring the building to Merit Academy. “If we were to sell that building to you for $1, you would be responsible for the upkeep of that building and all of the improvements in that building,” Patterson said. “And if something did happen to Merit (which we don’t expect anything to happen because it is the fastest growing school in the district), then the contract must say that we will buy the building back from you for the amount that we sold it to you with all the improvements you put into the school.”
But Board of Education Director Keegan Barkley disagreed. “I don’t know that selling it for $1 would be a good idea because that wouldn’t help the other buildings in the district, and it wouldn’t help the other students at all,” Barkley said. “And we would be giving up one of our assets, so if we wanted to take out loans we would have less collateral to do so. So, we don’t want to give it away for $1 that would be a very bad deal for the rest of the students in the district.”
Barkley said that the district needed to get an appraisal on the building to see how much it was worth, and then they could talk about what Merit Academy could afford. The district could then take the money from the sale of the building to pay for repairs of the other school buildings in the district.
However, other Merit Academy and district board members contend that it isn’t fair to make taxpayers pay again for a building that was already purchased with taxpayer money. The RE-2 board refrained from taking any official action. At the same time, Merit board members stressed the importance of the needed repairs and asked that the transfer take place as soon as possible.
Opinions on this issue have been widely divided based on social media comments. Many are outraged over the idea of giving away this facility, while some contend that in reality, it is a good fiscal deal for the district.
