PARKER, Colorado — The Douglas County School District (DCSD) has purchased the facility that used to house The Wildlife Experience and CU Denver South to expand student resources.
The building is about 175,000 square feet and will be home to their new Innovation Center that will provide Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Concurrent Enrollment (CE) opportunities for DCSD students. It will also house centralized staff offices, conference space and space for academic programming. The district said the location provides a centralized location for students across the district.
“I’m so excited about the impact we’re going to have on others,” said DCSD superintendent Corey Wise, “We look at this opportunity to build in our community, to build in students and take us to the next level for years to come.”
The district previously planned a similar project to construct the Innovation Center and an Alternative Education School as a new campus on Pine Drive in Parker. In October of 2021, the Board of Education approved placing the project on hold due to budget concerns.
“As you look at construction costs, timelines, and COVID, that became financially cost prohibitive,” Wise said. “It’s a combination of being in the right place at the right time, it’s a combination of preparation.”
According to the district, the new building was purchased below market value at $10.3 million, and part of the funding comes from a bond that was passed in 2018 and cash-in-lieu funding.
“You can do more with less and that’s part of that fiscal responsibility not only to that bond…but to our community and to our future,” said Wise.
“I look at this building as an investment in our community and an investment into our kids,” added district Executive Director of Schools Danny Winsor. “In a district that’s 800 square miles…you can’t allow the zip code to define the opportunities for our kids.”
In the new facility, students will be able to develop career skills while earning high school and college credits along with industry certificates and college diplomas in career fields like the culinary arts and nursing.
“Kids don’t always come to school for math class or an English class,” Winsor said. They come to school to be able to try to tap into whatever that passion maybe.”
“Advanced manufacturing, engineering, aviation and aeronautical engineering…these are programs that universities want to have and that we already have and want to keep building upon,” Wise said.
The new center is set to open in August of 2023, and DCSD said CU will keep the nursing program operating there.
“We look at this opportunity to build in our community, to build in students and take us to the next level for years to come,” Wise said.
To get more information on the Innovation Center at CU South and Alternative Education School in Parker head to their website.
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