After a difficult school year, Chavez/Huerta Preparatory Academy is ending the year on a high note.
The charter school’s Ballet Folklorico program, under April Bojorquez, has been awarded a $2,000 grant from the Colorado Creative Industries.
Chavez/Huerta was the only Pueblo organization to receive on of the 21 folk art grant awarded by CCI. CHPA Ballet Folklorico is the only school based Ballet Folklorico in Pueblo and one of the few in the state of Colorado. Ballet Folklorico is a part of the elementary to high school curriculum at CHPA. Over 150 students participate in the CHPA folklorico program. The High School Ballet Folklorico students receive college credit for this CHPA program.
The group is scheduled to perform at El Pueblo History Museum at 5 p.m. on May 8.
The folklorico program is a part of CHPA’s Culturally Responsive Curriculum. Which also includes our Mariachi program. Our culturally responsive programs not only maintain a rigorous academic experience – they also create a sense of belonging and place for the CHPA community by embedding our community culture and history into the CHPA institution.
“With completition of our construction, those programs will have state-of-the-art facilities next year,” Duran said.
Duran, a former CEO of CHPA, recently accepted his third assignment as interim director of the schools through June of this year. The Charter school has been without a CEO since Christian De La Olive resigned in January. He was the second CEO to leave the school without competing a full school year.
“The Board’s goal is to identify a new director by the end of May,” Duran said.
The good news is that the new administrator will come into a much more stable fiscal situation. In February, it was reported that the schools may have to close next school year. In the past few months, staff and board members have made major adjustments to the current and proposed budgets, he said.
“Looks like we’re ending (current school year) with a small surplus,” he said. “We’re within $35,000 of a balanced budget for next year.”
He said the budget problems were primarily caused by declining enrollment, which is a statewide problem. The budget adjustments were necessary to pay the bond payments on the $35 million in new
construction on the Westside campus.
The development of the schools has spurred private construction of homes in the surrounding neighborhoods, according to Duran. He hopes the completion of the construction will attract more students, which translates into more funding for the school’s academic programs.
