Editor’s note: this story has been updated to correct and clarify facts and figures detailing the potential bond vote.

Academy District 20’s board of education voted to move forward with a possible bond vote Thursday evening.

Specifically, the board unanimously approved to authorize a Notice of Intent form to be submitted to El Paso County for possibly submitting a bond question for the November ballot.

Though its language has yet to be decided, should it be submitted, the bond question would ask voters to approve funding to rebuild Douglass Valley Elementary School and Air Academy High School, upgrade non-charter schools to comply with mandatory LED lighting requirements under Colorado HB23-1161 and fund facility expansions for The Classical Academy and New Summit Charter Academy Middle School.

The total projected bond is estimated at $69.14 million.

What would make this bond different is that it would not impose any new tax and would only partially cover the costs of the rebuilds. The majority of costs would be paid by the federal Funding for Public Schools on Military Installations (PSMI) program.

Through the U.S. Department of Defense, the PSMI program provides funding to districts to rebuild or renovate public schools located on military installations to address current deficiencies like capacity needs or facility conditions. In these cases, the department pays for 80% of the total costs while the district pays 20%.

In 2018, the department completed an assessment of the 161 schools located on military installations across the country and ranked their levels of deficiency. D-20 schools Douglass Valley Elementary and Air Academy High School are currently located on the U.S. Air Force Academy grounds with Air Academy ranking at 61 and Douglass Valley at 71 out of 161 in the assessment.

Based off these rankings, the department encouraged D-20 in 2023 to consider the PSMI Program as a strategy to fund construction, renovation, repair, and/or expansion improvements for both of these schools.

Last March, a federal evaluation team toured the schools and followed up with design proposals submitted to the department’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. The design for Douglass Valley detailed a rebuild from a K-5 to a PK-8 school with a preliminary cost set at approximately $61.2 million. In this scenario, D-20 would be on the hook for $12.2 million of these costs which they are currently able to fund.

As for Air Academy High, the preliminary cost was estimated at $238.4 million with D-20 covering $47.7 million.

D-20 deputy superintendent and chief financial officer Becky Allan told board members during a study session ahead of the meeting that the department approached the district stating they weren’t interested in renovating the high school.

“They will only entertain a rebuild because they want to guarantee a 30-year lifespan (for the building),” she said.

The board approved the form to be submitted to the county clerk, but the ballot measure itself is far from a done deal. Should they decide to proceed with the ballot initiative, a resolution for the intergovernmental agreement with the county clerk’s office would need approval no later than Aug. 27 or 70 days before the election. The specific ballot language would then need to be presented to and passed by the board no later than Sept. 6, which is 60 days before the election.

“It’s important to know that this is not binding,” Allan said of the Thursday night vote.

Right before the vote, board treasurer Lauren Yanez said the study session, which was not recorded nor heavily attended by the public, provided much clarity to the process of the bond going forward that she believes will help to inform the public on the bond going forward.

“I look forward to opportunities in the future to explain these talking points and really go through the way we did this afternoon with our community,” she said.