About Us at CIVICA Academy Colorado

Our School

We are proud to introduce CIVICA Colorado College and Career Academies to the Johnstown-Milliken School District (RE-5J) Board of Education. CIVICA is a much-needed grades 6-12 middle/high school addition to the menu of options available for our district’s students and families.

We expect to enroll 135 students in grades 6-9 in August of 2020, our first school year. Community interest in the program has been remarkable, as measured by the numbers of letters of support we have received. Two-hundred students have completed Intents to Enroll, with 94 in grades 6-9, which is more than 50% of our opening enrollment.

At build-out, our initial planning is for three tracks of 90 students each, resulting in a projected 630 student, grades 6-12 middle/high school.

Our Student Demographic Profile

We are targeting a student body profile that mirrors the RE-5J student body, which includes:

• 34% Minority

• 34% Economically Disadvantaged

• 9% Special Education

• 6% English Language Learning

• 5% Gifted and Talented

Our Successful School Partners – COHEA and The CIVICA Education Foundation

CIVICA of Colorado College and Career Academies is modeled on the City of Hialeah Education Academy (COHEA) in Hialeah, Florida. COHEA was founded by then mayor of the City of Hialeah, Julio Robaina. The school opened in August of 2008 with 97 students and Mr. Carlos Alvarez as the principal. Mr. Robaina’s vision was to open a middle/high school on ground owned by the city that housed a police sub-station, fire station, and fire training academy. Criminal Justice, Firefighting, and Emergency Medicine were among the first Career Academies at the school. COHEA now offers the original academies as well as Mass Communications, Law and Legal Studies, Education, and the AP Advanced Academy. COHEA’s grades 6-12 student population is approaching 1,000 students, the same size as Roosevelt High School.

The success of the COHEA model led its founding principal, Mr. Alvarez, to form a charter school network and replicate the model. The Hialeah, Florida City Council is the Board of Directors for COHEA; therefore, COHEA cannot license its branding, logos, and school model in the way a traditional charter school would. (In Florida, municipalities can authorize charter schools.) CIVICA will be the inaugural school in the CIVICA network. The CIVICA network is a non-profit organization, as will be all the affiliated charter schools, including CIVICA Colorado.

The CIVICA network contracts with Academica, a charter school support and services provider, to assist in developing and replicating the network. COHEA has maintained its relationship with Academica since its inception in 2008. Academica provides facilities support, bookkeeping, budgeting, human resources, legal and other business services at the request of charter school boards. Academica currently services more than 200 charter schools across the United States, including two in Colorado with Colorado-based employees.

Our Property

One of the great strengths of our school application comes from the overwhelming community support we have enjoyed. The most exciting of which is our three-way partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Weld County (BGC) and Hall-Irwin Construction. As of March 2021, Mr. Bret Hall, a lifelong resident of Milliken, agreed to lease his company's corporate office and renovate the existing building to accommodate 8 classrooms, a cafeteria, a computer lab and a CTE classroom. The facility is located just west of the Thompson Rivers Parks and Recreation District (TRPR). The recreation district, which serves the Johnstown-Milliken community, maintains athletic fields, tennis courts, a large parking area, and a playground.

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