School District 49, under new direction from the Colorado Department of Education, will oversee nearly $53 million in funding, following the dissolution of a partnering service provider last month.

After the D-49 Board of Education voted to dissolve the Education ReEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Education Services (ERBOCES), which provided specialized education services including charter schools, contract schools and homeschool enrichment programs, the district assumed temporary control of its network of multidistrict online schools that had begun their respective academic years.

BOCES provides shared services to partnering school districts that otherwise can’t sustain them alone, such as special education resources in small rural districts. When D-49 became ERBOCES’ only associated district earlier this year, CDE recommended its dissolution.

Since then, CDE instructed D-49 to keep the enrollment funding for the online schools separate from the district’s previously approved budget, leading to the creation of a new fund ensuring this separation for reporting purposes.

The board approved the fund, known as “Fund 28,” during its regular meeting Thursday.

Aside from administrative fees, all the revenue generated by these online schools will be expensed back into them. The per-pupil revenue from the schools’ 4,928 students amounts to about $52.89 million, D-49 Chief Financial Officer Rebekah Brooks told board members.

She added that the district will have more detailed data in an amended budget presentation scheduled for January.

CDE’s website lists Williamsburg Academy of Colorado, Pikes Peak Online School, Colorado Summit Connections Academy and the Colorado Preparatory Academy’s elementary, middle and high schools as ERBOCES’ online schools from last year.

When board member Lori Thompson asked about the future of these schools beyond the current academic year, D-49 Superintendent Peter Hilts said the district doesn’t intend to seek an extension of this authorization “for direct competition reasons and for state assessment participation reasons” and that he and other administrators are helping to identify other potential operators.

“There are things about those schools that are great strengths,” Hilts told the board. “They have attracted significant market share in the regions in which they operate and so we anticipate that they will have strong interest from around the state.”

Other business

• The board also approved revisions to District Policy JS-R, which concerns students’ use of the internet and electronic technology, to add provisions for artificial intelligence.

Access to generative AI will now be granted only as needed for instruction, following a vetting and approval process. Using AI to aid assignments, projects or research must be declared by students, while using it to generate answers or complete assignments without proper citation or passing off AI content as one’s own will be considered misuse.

Students will also develop AI literacy to understand the principles, concepts, applications, limitations, implications and ethical considerations.

• The board denied a stakeholder’s request for an appeal regarding concerns over different athletic fees across district schools. The board collectively agreed that the district’s existing policy on collecting fees, which grants individual schools and athletic directors some autonomy in doing so, didn’t warrant a review.  

• The board engaged in an hourlong discussion on its policy regarding public comments at its meetings. A draft of the updated policy will be presented at the board’s October meeting.