CSBJ Daily

A private Colorado Springs school for gifted children – Renaissance Academy at 2760 Fieldstone Road – has fallen victim to the poor economic times and closed its doors abruptly this morning.

Parents and faculty received notice yesterday that the school would be closing. Some parents didn’t find out until they attempted to drop their children off at school this morning and found the doors locked.

“It’s been a developing situation over the past couple of years,” board member Tom Briggs said. “We’ve been unable to transfer loans into permanent financing, and it’s been a real drain. We finally made the decision that we did not want to incur any more debt.”

He said the school had managed to struggle along in recent years with tens of thousands of dollars in loans from private organizations and from board members, but when enrollment dropped from the usual 100 students to about 70 this year, it became too much.

“With enrollment down, we couldn’t fight off the banks anymore,” he said.

Briggs said the school looked for other loan sources before finally deciding to close.

“But you can’t find a loan in this town now, not the way things are now,” he said.

Renaissance Academy was founded in 1993. Five-day-a-week tuition averaged $9,700 a year.

“It’s a difficult situation,” Briggs said. “I don’t think I can say anything to parents and teachers that will make them feel better about the situation. There’s no easy way to do these things.”