Commerce City families win UPrep charter battle
Commerce City families demanding a high quality school for their children took their fight to the State Board of Education Wednesday.
They worked for over a year to bring a University Prep (UPrep) charter school to the Adams 14 school district.
The Adams 14 school board approved the charter school a year ago but then ended its negotiations with the University Prep in October.
Adams 14 said it lost trust in UPrep based on some disputes -- including whether the charter would open a preschool in its first year.
UPrep parents were crushed when they learned that the school they planned to send their children to might not open. So they worked with the charter network to file an of appeal of the Adams 14 decision with the State Board.
Commerce City first grader Camilla Sanginov commutes to the UPrep campus in Denver.
Her mom Jennifer Sanginov said, "Oh she loves it. She's in the top of her class and she enjoys reading."
Sanginov said she chose not to send her daughter to a district-run school in the Adams 14 district -- which she herself went to as a child.
She said, "I feel like Adams 14 let me down as a child and as an adult I feel like they failed me unfortunately and I don't want them to fail my children."
Sanginov hopes to send Camilla to the new Commerce City UPrep school, "I trust UPrep with my daughter," she added.
Another Commerce City mom -- Susanna Pasillas also sends her daughter to UPrep in Denver and wants other Adams County parents to have that option. She told us, "She absolutely loves the school. She's told me so many times I better not take her out of UPrep."
But that future became uncertain earlier this year -- when the Adams 14 school board moved to cancel contract negotiations -- after UPrep could not commit to opening a preschool in its first year.
Adams 14 attorney Jon Fero told the state board, "Through these actions, University Prep irrevocably broke its commitment to collaborate in good faith and demonstrate it could be trusted to operate a high quality school under the district's authorization."
UPrep appealed that decision to the State Board of Education -- which voted unanimously in UPrep's favor late Wednesday afternoon.
The move sent UPrep and Adams 14 back to the negotiating table -- and gives hope to the parents awaiting the charter in Commerce City.
Pasillas said, "If we can bring something like UPrep to Commerce City, I feel like a lot of students will gain so much from it just because of the high expectations and the rigorous curriculum that they offer."
The attorney for Adams 14 tell says he thought the language used in the state board's motion was confusing and the district is waiting to decide next steps until they see the written order.
And if they feel the board is overstepping – the district may involve the courts.
