Former Colorado Board of Education member and Republican Senate candidate, Stephen Varela, is hoping to launch a new charter school in Pueblo’s District 60 at the site of the former Chávez Huerta Preparatory Academy (CHPA).
In order to launch the new charter school in time for the 2025-2026 school year, Varela is asking for a waiver of the application timeline as defined by Colorado law. “The statute, the way I read it, does not even allow us to act on this particular matter, even if it is considered by this board tonight,” said D60 board member and former Democratic legislator William Thiebaut during a Jun. 24 board meeting. “It has to be filed with the Board of Education during the period beginning Feb. 1 and ending April 1. Eighteen months before the school is set to open. That is the law. And then you are jumping over to another part of the law that says, ‘Well, wait a minute. The local board and the charter applicant may jointly waive or extend the timelines set forth.’”
In January, D60’s board voted to end the CHPA’s charter contract due to what district officials described as ongoing fiscal mismanagement at the school. CHPA appealed the decision to the State Board of Education, which denied their request 7-1. Varela formerly served on CHPA’s board, resigning in 2022 after concerns were raised by current D60 board member and former judge Dennis Maes and CHPA teachers and staff called on Varela to resign. Varela was later appointed to the Colorado Board of Education in Jan. 2023, but resigned effective Oct. 1, 2024.
“We’ve noticed that in the west side [of Pueblo], it’s an area that always serves underserved members of our community [who] tend to be lower income Hispanic and tend to be forgotten, left behind,” said Varela, the charter developer, during a presentation during the Jun. 24 D60 board meeting. “We put together a board of Hispanic leaders in our community, and we said ‘How do we keep fighting for that area on the west side, Hyde Park?’ We said, ‘Let’s find an external manager and let’s find somebody to help us get this going, to protect that community.’”
According to a copy of Varela’s letter of intent to apply to become a charter school, obtained via Colorado Open Records Act, that external manager would be ACCEL Schools. “ACCEL partners with nearly 90 charter schools across the country,” noted Varela in the letter of intent. “Upon approval of the charter, the board will execute an educational products and services agreement with ACCEL. ACCEL provides over 300 courses both curated and proprietary curriculum that is aligned with state standards.”
ACCEL was founded by Ron Packard, who founded K12 Inc., the for-profit school management company that has recently come under scrutiny in New Mexico after months of documented legal and academic violations. The list includes failure to comply with New Mexico law on student-teacher ratios, high student turnover, declining graduation rates, and some of the lowest academic proficiency scores in the state.
Parents in states looking to adopt ACCEL schools have raised similar concerns. According to the 2018-2019 Ohio report card for public and charter schools, 18 ACCEL Schools received an “F” grade, 12 received a “D” grade and the rest received a “C” grade. None received either an “A” or “B” grade from the state. At the time, ACCEL operated 33 schools in Ohio. However, charter schools were only allowed to operate underperforming districts in Ohio until 2021.
Last year, Cornerstone Academy, one of ACCEL’s Ohio schools, came under scrutiny after claims were made that students were being locked in classrooms at the school. ACCEL told a local news outlet that it was a “training issue.”
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency also cited ACCEL over lead paint concerns and asbestos at three of its schools in Ohio. “EPA is holding ACCEL accountable to protect students and staff from asbestos and lead exposure,” said EPA Regional Administrator Debra Shore in a news release. “Children deserve healthy school environments where they can focus on learning. EPA will continue to work to reduce lead and asbestos hazards in Ohio and across the United States.”
Part of ACCEL’s business model involves helping charter schools struggling with financial issues. Varela highlighted the financial issues faced by CHPA’s closure in a May 20 email to D60’s superintendent and board.
“We are fully aware of the financial obligations left by the previous charter holder [CHPA] and are prepared to to assume responsibility for them, including the lease and remaining debt tied to the CHPA facilities,” wrote Varela. “We are willing to take on the buildings and relieve the district of any associated burden, whether financial or operational.”
In a 2023 report on public funding of for-profit charter schools, Michigan news outlet “The ‘Gander” noted, “Some charter school operators in Michigan — like ACCEL Schools — also run their own real estate arms, which reportedly allow them to acquire properties and then basically rent their own buildings to themselves (with taxpayer dollars) through the charter schools they manage. In the case of ACCEL, running charter schools in Michigan was a lucrative enough endeavor to earn the backing of Safanad Limited in 2014, an investment firm with Saudi ties based in Dubai. And because those private entities aren’t subject to Michigan’s open records laws, nobody—not even the state Board of Education—knows whether or not those contracts are offering taxpayers a fair deal, or bilking them out of millions of dollars in sweetheart real estate contracts.”
Varela emphasized Packard’s role in such operations, and highlighted the presence of Packard and other senior ACCEL leaders at the June. 24 D60 board meeting. “The CEO of the organization, he travels the country and he does this,” said Varela. “He finds these schools that he can help these communities that are at-risk and he believes in education.”
Maes and Thiebaut raised concerns about ACCEL. “When you talk about an external management group,” said Maes, “our policies provided that we have to be very careful about that because we have to make a determination as to whether or not these folks — venture capitalists — have any conflicts of interest in running our schools.”
Earlier this year, Sequoia Pathway Academy, an Arizona charter school run by EdKey, was considering an agreement with ACCEL amid financial woes. Edkey’s corporate board president, Mary Gifford, is also the executive vice president for ACCEL, and was also present for the June 24 D60 board meeting.
“They grab the money and they run, and we sit here holding the things that they did not accomplish,” said Maes.
The D60 board ultimately did not vote on Varela’s proposal. Varela says he will continue to attempt to get the school running by the start of the 2025-2026 school year, and hopes the D60 board will consider revisiting the proposed charter school during the August meeting.
“That school was purchased with BEST [Building Excellent Schools Today] grant funds,” said Varela. “It’s unfortunate to see a school that was built, I think it’s $42 million, just sitting empty in a community that tends to be forgotten and left behind, and to see that happen like that, it’s just as heartbreaking that two board members would shut it down.”
