WINDSOR, Colo. — Windsor’s RainDance neighborhood is a vibrant community, even as work continues on future homes. Sitting in the middle of the development rests an empty piece of land — it’s future still undecided.
“We really just want a compromise that works for everyone and serves the entire community,” said Autumn Leopold and Kimberly Kee, who live in the neighborhood just a few blocks away.
Both of them have concerns over the land becoming a charter school, with back-and-forth going on for months.
“Nobody had asked the residents of RainDance, the parents of students in Weld County if they wanted this. Nobody asked them, and then when we started doing records research and realize that these conversations had been taking place over the course of many, many months, that's when we realized that this is not something that just popped up,” said Kee.
As of Monday night’s board meeting, the Weld RE-4 School District still doesn’t own the land. It was supposed to be deeded from Martin Lind, the president of Water Valley Company.
Denver7 visited Lind's office to learn why the process wasn’t complete, but he was not available. Instead, we spoke with a board member of the American Legacy Academy, the charter school looking to acquire the land.
“The developer, Martin Lind, suggested that we go after that property for the charter school. So he was just saying that's a dedicated property to the district, but it's in the neighborhood and it would be good to have a charter school, or any school, in the neighborhood,” said Stan Everitt, board member of the American Legacy Academy.
After Monday’s meeting, the school delayed its decision on the land deal.
In a statement, the district told Denver7 in part, “The district is in the final stages of property deed transfer for the RainDance property to fulfill the site dedication agreement and will continue to work with Mr. Lind's team on that process.”
Still, Kee and Leopold would rather see a regular public school in their neighborhood. Right now, they’re questioning whether the district can get the developer to live up to his promise at all.
