STERLING RANCH, Colo. — With a new school year just a few weeks away, there is growing excitement in Sterling Ranch, as the 2026-2027 school year will be the first school year at John Adams Academy (JAA). There's also another first on the horizon.
The school is set to become the first in the state to use a drone-based active shooter suppression system that school officials say will cut down response times in the event of an emergency. But some parents have concerns about the system itself as well as how it's being funded.
▶️ WATCH: Denver7's Douglas County Reporter Tyler Melito talks with parents and school officials about the new technology
The technology is a series of drones from school safety company Campus Guardian Angel, described in an article on the company's website, as an "Active Shooter Suppression System that uses drones remotely operated by world-class pilots to confront and degrade active shooter threats within seconds."
For school officials, it's all about safety.
"This advanced technology does those two things. It doesn't just give us real live time information, it shaves time off of response, which is critical when we know milliseconds matter," JAA Headmaster Sarah Kiesewetter said.
It's far from the only safety measure the school will have. Kiesewetter said that in addition to cameras around the interior and exterior of the building, staff will be armed with a weapon.
"The board's priority, my priority, all of administration's priority is safety for our students," Kiesewetter said. "We are all aware of the tragic incidents that have occurred in the state. We have a multi-tiered approach to school security."
Some parents in the county are worried about the environment the measures could create.
"The system itself is a system of drones that are hidden in boxes in in the hallways of the school, and they are operated remotely from Texas," said Kim Carroll of Parker. "This is K-8. These are our tender babies, and they are now going to have to be in a place where not only are there armed teachers, but there are drones flying around, which already sound horrible."
Carroll and Tiffany Baker from Highlands Ranch, neither of whom have children who will be attending JAA, are also concerned about how the technology is being funded.
This concern stems from a June 30 Douglas County Commissioners work session that included an item on the agenda for a funding request from JAA for the technology.
No vote happened during that June 30 meeting, but on July 1, Campus Guardian Angel announced the partnership with JAA.
"The timing of this request to the commissioners from John Adams Academy can be questionable," Baker said.
Both Baker and Carroll expressed support for making sure every Douglas County student, regardless of what type of school they attend, is safe. But they say they are concerned about whether JAA should be awarded the remainder of the $10 million in funding that was established after the 2019 shooting at the STEM School in Highlands Ranch that left one student dead.
"We would like to see John Adams Academy have their fair share," Baker said. "Where we might disagree is them having the full $200,000 which would exhaust the rest of the funding that came after the STEM shooting."
During the June 30 meeting, Douglas County Commissioner Abe Laydon expressed some concern over the tech.
"For me, the only thing that could be pause is I don't know anything about this particular technology, and so I would want to learn a little bit more and work with our staff and our experts to just get a sense of the efficacy, because there are, and this isn't, I'm not saying you all, but we do get a lot of sort of fly-by-night mover technologies, and we want to have that assessed and think thoroughly before allocating, or at least I would want to see that," Laydon said during the meeting.
The timeline raised a red flag for Baker and Carroll.
"A lot of us are questioning, did this money get given to JAA before a public vote? Did it violate Colorado open meeting laws because the vote was taken without public notice? We don't know," Carroll said. "It doesn't seem like the taxpayers are knowing where their money is going."
Denver7's Tyler Melito asked Kiesewetter about the funding for the technology.
"Douglas County is really committed, and one of their major initiatives is school safety in this county," Kiesewetter said. "The grant was allocated for both private and public schools, we are a public school, and the beneficiaries of that decisive action."
Denver7's Melito pressed Kiesewetter on whether the funding was coming directly from taxpayer dollars.
"The request was made for the county for this grant, so we're in conversations about what that looks like. We just applaud their efforts to continue to keep our school safe and to help to benefit our multi-tiered approach to school security," Kiesewetter responded.
Denver7 reached out to a spokesperson for Commissioner Laydon for comment about the technology.
Laydon said in a statement the county has "a robust process for funding school security":
“Keeping kids safe at school has been one of my highest priorities since the STEM shooting over seven years ago and I’m thankful John Adams Academy shares this focus. The county has had a robust process for funding school security informed by subject matter expertise and I look forward to the continued discussion with John Adams on next steps, in line with the same rubric for funding we have provided to all schools in Douglas County”
