AURORA | The Cherry Creek School District received $1.5 million from a federal spending bill for the construction of its mental health day treatment center after inflation put its initial budget in the red.
Tony Poole, Cherry Creek’s assistant superintendent of special populations, shared the news Monday in an update on the center’s progress at the district’s February board of education meeting.
Traverse Academy is scheduled to open this fall, and is being built with funding from a $150 million bond issue approved by voters in the 2020 election, with $15 million budgeted for the day treatment center.
Poole said supply chain issues and inflation that followed in the years since the measure was approved put the construction over budget. The district was put in the position of having to cut some of the features it hoped to include on the campus. Instead, it applied for and received a grant for additional funding from the offices of Rep. Jason Crow (D-Centennial) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) in a Congressional spending bill passed in December.
In a December news release, Crow’s office said the $1.5 million for Cherry Creek Schools was one of 15 community project funding requests that each member of the House of Representatives was eligible to submit. Organizations including the Colorado Freedom Memorial Center, the Aurora Mental Health Center, Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center received funding through the bill.
“As families struggle with rising costs and uncertain supply chains, I’m focused on ensuring Coloradans have access to the resources they need to thrive,” Crow said in a statement. “I’m proud to deliver these investments to support kids in our community, provide mental health care, honor our veterans, and so much more.”
The day treatment center will be a partnership between the school district, Children’s Hospital Colorado and CU Anschutz. It is being built by MOA Architecture, which Poole said “did a fantastic job of listening to us” and helping us build a facility that met the district’s vision.
When designing the facility, Poole said the district wanted to make sure that it looked inviting and non-institutional and made good use of natural light and outdoor space. The facility will include multiple outdoor seating areas and classrooms.
Kim Avalos, who is currently the district’s assistant superintendent of special education, has been selected to be Traverse Academy’s principal.
“She will bring a lot of talent to this facility,” Poole said.
Traverse Academy is believed to be the first of its kind partnership between a public school district and a children’s hospital, and it has garnered national attention since its inception.
Poole said that CBS news will be airing a segment about the center later this month and that school districts from Minnesota, Ohio and other places in Colorado have reached out to Cherry Creek about how to emulate their work.
The district is currently dealing with some challenges regarding which regulatory agency in the state will oversee Traverse Academy, since it falls under the jurisdiction of multiple agencies, including the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the newly created Behavioral Health Agency. However, Poole said officials at multiple agencies have been “very supportive” of the district’s work.
Board members expressed excitement about Traverse’s progress, with Anne Egan praising the selection of Avalos to lead the academy.
Board member Janice McDonald said it was “bittersweet” that the district needs to have a facility like this in the first place due to the number of children and teens struggling with mental health issues.
“But thank God they will have a warm and inviting place to go to receive help,” she said.