El Paso County will see multiple campuses with multiple public schools operating out of them next year.

Schools, charter and non-charter alike, in both Colorado Springs Districts 11 and 49 are on the move under a variety of circumstances that leadership believes will better serve them and their communities.

Earlier this year, school officials announced that Orton Academy, a charter school specializing in educating students with dyslexia, would relocate to Trailblazer Elementary in D-11. On Wednesday, the district’s board approved a contract modification for its incoming charter school, East Hills Academy, and a co-occupancy with its existing Horace Mann Middle School.

D-49 announced that it would move Falcon Elementary School of Technology into Bennett Ranch Elementary this spring. On Thursday, its board reviewed a memorandum of understanding from Superintendent Peter Hilts supporting a co-location between its James Irwin Elementary School–Canada Drive charter school and D-11’s James Irwin Elementary School–Howard charter next year.

Hilts told the board that the co-district, co-location will occur for a single school year while asbestos abatement work is done on the Howard campus.

“They are in a position where they need some help,” he said of the neighboring school.

Hilts said both schools will operate as separate entities. Although its students will be housed in a building owned by another district, D-11 will still be responsible for their funding, transportation and assessment.

As for D-11’s other moving charters, both decisions stem from this year’s capacity report, which identified schools with the least-used space. Trailblazer reportedly had a 40% utilization rate while Mann had a rate of 33% in fall 2025.

State law also requires school districts to inform its chartered schools of available space. It was during a presentation and subsequent discussion at a Nov. 12 work session where school officials floated the idea of expanding co-locations and partnerships.

“We should be happy to kind of use space in efficient ways. We have various buildings and, you know, capital,” said D-11 board President Thomas Carey ahead of the board approving the modified contract.

“Charter schools are … our schools,” he added. “They are a legally permissible vehicle for public education. And given that we authorize them and given that this board is kind of the steward of public education in this geographical area, I think it makes good sense to be looking for ways to make efficient use of taxpayer resources and capital.”

East Hills Academy will open this fall as the first D-11 school to offer a classical education model to students in kindergarten through second grade. The school hopes to add grades as enrollment grows until it becomes a K-8 school.

According to its website, East Hills will operate independently on the Mann campus, with dedicated classrooms and facilities in a separate area of the building. The co-occupancy term will run from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031, per the charter contract.

Not everyone in the community has been on board with these developments.

Following the April announcement that Orton would move into Trailblazer next year, parents and community members voiced their concerns outside the school over a lack of public input or notice. Orton is housed in the former location of Holy Trinity Catholic School.

At D-11’s May 6 board meeting, parent Kumeko Norris said she was concerned about how Mann would be able to effectively share its bathrooms, kitchen, playgrounds and gymnasium between two schools serving different grades.

She added that East Hills’ growing enrollment could negatively impact other district schools. She also noted that she is a parent who welcomes and uses school choice for her own children.

“However, I worry that the district’s heavy marketing of choice enrollment comes at the detriment of neighborhood schools experiencing decreased enrollment because of zoned families choicing out,” Norris said.

Later in the meeting, D-11’s chief of strategy and implementation, Nicole Ottmer, said that, in addition to some shared spaces and determined times for the campus auditorium, each school would have its own dedicated building, playground and gym and that East Hills’ lunches would be cooked in the Mann kitchen before being taken to their building via heated carts and a ramp. Parking and traffic flow are not projected to be an issue.

In D-49, the decision to move Falcon Elementary into Bennett was to ensure more balanced class sizes and expanded student opportunities while each school maintains its own identities and traditions, the district said in a March announcement.

The vacated elementary school campus will welcome a new Student Success Center at the start of the 2026-27 school year, which will offer full-time preschool and D-49’s existing PEAK and Elevates Transitions programs for students with disabilities and students ages 18-21, respectively.

The eventual plan for the campus is to house a new pre-K-8 school.

Past instances

D-11 leadership has called these new charter moves the latest expansion of community partnerships via their school buildings. These partnerships include Communion of Saints holding its Sunday worship services at Palmer High School, Jack Swigert Middle School featuring a clubhouse for the nonprofit Friends of the Children and Galileo Middle School hosting the Ascend Center for at-risk students.

In Teller County, Woodland Park District RE-2’s charter school Merit Academy moved into its middle school during the 2023-24 school year as a co-location. The charter remained in the building and the middle school moved in with the district high school, now known as Woodland Park Junior/Senior High.

Speaking from his own experience, Hilts said a similar action was taken in D-49 when a charter school, Banning Lewis Academy, temporarily hosted the district’s homeschooling program while space was available and it continued to grow its enrollment.

He said during the board meeting that, while he wasn’t technically required to present this development to the board for approval, the district opted to do so as a public notice.

“We just wanted to make sure that, in the interest of transparency, people understand why buses are running out of D-11 into D-49 for a year,” Hilts said.