🚨 This Is What “Quietly Slipping It Through” Looks Like 🚨
A school board member in Pueblo District 70 has resigned after parents exposed her role in quietly helping bring what was promoted as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” into the district — without full public disclosure.
According to reporting by Chalkbeat Colorado board member Anne Ochs voted to allow Riverstone Academy to open within district boundaries while failing to publicly disclose key facts, including:
• That the school planned to operate with a Christian curriculum
• That it was intended to provoke a legal test case over public funding for religious schools
• That she had already signed a contract to work for the school’s authorizing body before the vote
Parents only learned the full scope of this through investigative journalism — not from their elected officials.
During public comment, a district parent directly confronted the board about the lack of transparency and the apparent conflict of interest. Moments later, the board member abruptly resigned and walked out of the meeting.
This matters — not just in Colorado, but nationally.
We continue to see the same pattern play out across the country:
➡️ Religious schools framed as “innovative” or “choice-based”
➡️ Key details withheld until after approvals are granted
➡️ Parents and communities left to piece together the truth through public records and investigative reporting
➡️ School boards caught flat-footed — or complicit
Public schools are not legal test labs.
Parents should not have to rely on journalists to uncover conflicts of interest months after the fact.
And elected officials have an obligation to disclose who they are working for and what they are voting on — before those votes are cast.
This resignation didn’t happen in a vacuum.
It happened because a parent spoke up, documents existed, and sunlight finally hit the process.
Transparency isn’t optional.
And “quietly” is no longer working.
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: Secular Education Association
- Facebook User: I’m very suspicious of this same thing in Everett
- Facebook User: A public school can’t be religious. Separation of church and state.
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