For Immediate Release
8.9.2022
Sheena Kadi
Communications Director & Public Information Officer
sheena.kadi@state.co.us
303-349-8113
Colorado Treasurer Dave Young Statement on Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Grant Recipient Mapleton Public Schools
Ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of their newest PreK-8th grade school
“This new school shows a great partnership between Mapleton Public Schools and the BEST program, and symbolizes our commitment to educational excellence for every child in Colorado. It marks the beginning of a new era in how we educate children in our community. Preparing our students for the rest of their lives has never been more important than right now.
This is a place where our children will have the tools to realize their dreams and potential. The new school will be a game changer in how we educate children and will continue to make the North Metro area appealing to families for decades to come.”
Colorado State Treasurer and former K-12 educator Dave Young
Valley View Innovation School
Valley View Innovation School was made possible by the 2016 community-supported bond and a $17 million grant from the BEST program.
Valley View Innovation School (VVIS) is a PK-8 project-based learning school powered by curiosity. Valley View will open in August as a PreK-2, and a grade level will be added each year until the school grows into a PreK-8.
VVIS features flexible and sophisticated designs unexpected in a PK-8 school, including creative and intentional deviations from traditional classroom settings and structures. This innovative setting empowers students to not just learn content, but live content. At each grade level, students build their academic year around three or more engaging, multi-disciplinary projects that rigorously address Colorado Academic standards. Fueled by each student’s engaging, thoughtful, and complex questions, projects come to life in one of six Immersion Studios – robotics, technology, culinary arts, art, music, and science. Projects incorporate more standards at one time and build cross-curricular connections.
BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) Grant Program
BEST is the only K-12 capital construction grant program in the state of Colorado.
BEST grants are funded through local matching dollars, State Land Board, Lottery, and excise tax revenues. This partnership has helped us to generate over $3.4 billion in school construction projects in almost every district in the state, improving the learning environments of hundreds of thousands of students. In FY 2022 alone, BEST generated more than $500 million in projects that created or supported almost 10,000 jobs.
Established in 2008 with the signing of House Bill 08-1335, BEST provides an annual amount of funding in the form of competitive grants to school districts, charter schools, institute charter schools, boards of cooperative educational services, and the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind. BEST funds can be used for the construction of new schools as well as general construction and renovation of existing school facility systems and structures.
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