Network Funding Projection

High Rockies Community School
of Colorado

Projected funding from FY 2025-26 baseline through FY 2031-32, under HB25-1320 and SB26-023 — Fairplay combined campus and the Alma campus, with per-input growth assumptions and year-over-year tracking.

FY26 ActualPrior methodology · CSI baseline
FY27 Projected
FY32 ProjectedFull new formula
FY26 → FY32 Change
Scenarios run from CSI-published defaults · adjust inputs below to model alternatives
Using this tool Defaults reflect what HRCS submitted to CSI for FY27, held flat through FY32. Edit any cell directly, or use the per-input growth-rate controls on each campus card to model trajectories (set enrollment, at-risk, ELL, SPED rates separately, then "Apply to FY28–FY32"). The Compare FY27↔FY32 toggle in the funding-source breakdown shows which formula components grow under the phase-in. Print to share a documented scenario with a board or finance committee.

Important on at-risk counts: CSI estimated FY27 at-risk, ELL, and SPED counts based on each school's prior-year identification percentages applied to projected FY27 enrollment. If a school has reason to believe its identification rates are shifting — for example, additional FRL outreach driving completion up, or a population shift between FY26 and FY27 — the FY27 input cells should be overridden with the school's best estimate of actual counts, not left at CSI's percentage-rollforward defaults. The Section 01 input matrix is where to make those edits.

01 · INPUTS & PER-CAMPUS PROJECTION

Per-campus projection

Each campus shows its FY26 baseline, an editable FY27-FY32 inputs matrix, the gross-net-PPR projection with year-over-year change, and a breakdown of where the funding is coming from in any selected year. FY27 defaults to figures HRCS submitted to CSI. FY28-FY32 default to FY27 values — set separate growth rates for enrollment, at-risk, ELL, and SPED below, or edit any cell directly.

EXISTING · PARK CO RE-2

HRCS Fairplay

Authorizer: CSI · Accounting district: Park County RE-2 (2610) · CDE school code: 3947

The existing HRCS campus. FY26 actual and FY27 published reference come from the CSI PPR Estimates file. The FY27 hold-harmless floor binds against FY26 actual × 1.01 ($664,837.31) — currently below the phase-in amount.

FY26 actual baseline

Demographics FPC At-Risk ELL SPED HC

FY27-FY32 inputs (editable)

Annual growth rates · FY28 → FY32 (compounded from FY27)
%
%
%
%
FY27→FY32: flat

Projection · gross, admin, net, per-pupil, YoY on PPR

Where the funding comes from

Calculated FY27 reconciles to CSI's published estimate within 0.1% at default inputs.
PLANNED · PARK CO RE-2

HRCS Alma

Authorizer: CSI (assumed) · Accounting district: Park County RE-2 (2610) · CDE school code: tbd

Planning placeholder — no FY26 baseline, no CSI published reference. Enter the campus's projected funded pupil count and demographics below. Park County RE-2 district factors apply (same PP7, COL, locale, size as Fairplay). The FY27 hold-harmless floor is $0 (new campus with no prior-year actual).

FY26 actual baseline

No FY26 baseline Alma is a planning-only entity in this tool. If HRCS confirms an FY26 actual or an FY27 CSI submission for Alma, update CAMPUSES.alma in the source.

FY27-FY32 inputs (editable) — user-entered projection

Annual growth rates · FY28 → FY32 (compounded from FY27)
%
%
%
%
FY27→FY32: flat

Projection · gross, admin, net, per-pupil, YoY on PPR

Where the funding comes from

No external benchmark — this is a user-projected scenario.
LAUNCHING FY27 · SUMMIT RE-1

HRCS Summit Expansion

Authorizer: CSI · Accounting district: Summit RE-1 (3000) · CDE school code: CS14

New campus launching FY27 — no FY26 baseline, no FY27 CSI published reference (since "published" estimates are for schools with FY26 history). Defaults match the CSI PPR Estimates row "HRCS Summit Expansion." Summit RE-1's district factors (PP7 $11,830 vs Park County's $12,740) and lower size/locale weights make Summit a meaningfully different funding district than Fairplay/Alma. The FY27 hold-harmless floor is $0 (no prior-year actual).

FY26 actual baseline

No FY26 baseline Launching campus — defaults reflect CSI's FY27 enrollment workbook submission.

FY27-FY32 inputs (editable)

Annual growth rates · FY28 → FY32 (compounded from FY27)
%
%
%
%
FY27→FY32: flat

Projection · gross, admin, net, per-pupil, YoY on PPR

Where the funding comes from

Calculated FY27 reconciles to the canonical CSF Funding Analysis 2732 engine row 40 to the cent ($656,321.18) at default inputs.
Base PPR inflation · FY28–FY32

FY27 base PPR is set at $8,900.40 (the appropriated rate — a 2.4% increase over FY26's $8,692). This input controls the assumed annual growth rate for FY28 onward, compounding through FY32. Default is 2.0% as a conservative planning baseline; the actual FY26→FY27 print was 2.4%, but TABOR limits and General Fund pressure make sub-2% scenarios worth stress-testing.

% per year

02 · NETWORK ROLLUP

Network total — Fairplay plus Alma

The network total is a sum of two independent calculations. Each campus is funded on its own demographics, district factors, and floor mechanics — the rollup just adds the results.

SUM OF TWO INDEPENDENT CALCULATIONS

Network Funding · FY26 → FY32

FY26 Baseline (Network)
Actual total program, prior methodology
FY32 Net to Network
After 3% CSI admin retention
Net Change FY26 → FY32

Seven-year trajectory · FY26 actual → FY32 projection

Gross total program — applicable amount each year, with FY26 as the prior-methodology starting point. The dotted line shows what each campus would receive at full new-formula implementation each year; the gap closes through phase-in.

Fairplay applicable Alma applicable Network total Full new-formula reference (FY27+)

03 · PLANNING IMPLICATIONS

Reading the projection

Plain-language interpretation for school leaders, boards, and finance committees. The bill broadly favors schools serving the populations HRCS serves, but small enrollment amplifies sensitivity to count accuracy and identification practices. The sections below cover the net effect, the levers that move funding, the risks worth tracking, and where each campus stands relative to its district.

Net effect on funding

The new formula adds explicit per-pupil weights for at-risk, ELL, and SPED populations (about $2,225 per identified student in FY27, rising with base PPR inflation thereafter). For a school serving those populations, the new formula generally produces more funding than the prior 1994 formula — but the actual size of the gain depends on enrollment, demographic composition, and the district's COL factor.

The phase-in runs in 15-percentage-point increments: 30% new formula in FY27, then 45%, 60%, 75%, 90%, and 100% by FY32, so the largest year-over-year increases are still ahead under the schedule as written. The dynamic readout below reflects the inputs currently in the matrix.

FY26 → FY32 trajectory under current inputs: Bill benefit at full implementation (FY32 new-formula PPR vs full old-formula PPR):

Demographic position vs district

How to use this comparison. All three HRCS campuses are CSI-authorized, which means the Institute calculates and passes through the school-generated funding directly — there is no district intermediary retaining or reallocating dollars. The school-vs-district comparison in Section 01 isn't a CSI-passthrough advocacy tool. It is useful for two other purposes: (1) understanding the bill's relative impact — schools whose demographic profile diverges materially from the surrounding district will see funding move differently than the district average reported in CDE summaries, so a board or finance committee reviewing district-level coverage of the bill needs the school-level lens; (2) communicating mission with quantitative grounding — when telling the school's story to authorizers, funders, or new families, the demographic comparison is concrete evidence of who the school serves relative to the surrounding area.

Fairplay and Alma are accounted to Park County RE-2; Summit Expansion is accounted to Summit RE-1. Park County RE-2 has a district at-risk rate around 40.4%, an ELL rate of about 5.0%, and a SPED rate of about 15.7%. Summit RE-1 has a district at-risk rate around 37%, an ELL rate of about 17%, and a SPED rate of about 13.5%. Because both districts sit well below the 70% concentration threshold for at-risk, the new-formula concentration factor never triggers for any HRCS campus regardless of the school's own at-risk rate. The comparison that matters is the per-pupil weight stack on at-risk, ELL, and SPED counts — every identified student adds roughly $2,225/year in FY27, rising with base PPR thereafter, on top of federal IDEA, Title I, and state ELL grant funding (which the new formula does not displace).

The default demographic inputs in the matrices reflect what the schools have submitted to CSI to date. Each campus serves a meaningfully different demographic profile: Fairplay currently shows lower at-risk and ELL identification than Park County RE-2 but a SPED rate close to the district average; Alma, as a planning placeholder, starts blank and is yours to fill in; Summit Expansion as submitted shows a profile somewhat ELL-heavier than Park County but in line with Summit RE-1, with SPED close to the Summit district average. Edit any cell to test the dollar impact of higher identification rates — FRL form completion is typically the highest-yield administrative investment at a small campus.

Small-school sensitivity

The new-formula per-pupil weights are flat dollars — $2,225 for each at-risk, ELL, or SPED student in FY27 — but those dollars hit a much larger share of total program at a small school than at a large one.

At HRCS Fairplay's ~50-pupil FY27 plan, each ELL student is roughly 0.4% of total program. At Summit Expansion's ~50-pupil launching plan, each SPED student is roughly 0.35% of total. By contrast, a 500-pupil school sees those same single-student swings at about 0.04% of total — almost an order of magnitude smaller. Alma's effective sensitivity depends entirely on what enrollment you enter in the matrix; at the small sizes typical of a Park County mountain campus the same dynamic applies.

The practical implication: count accuracy, FRL form completion, IEP identification practices, and accurate enrollment projection submissions matter more at a small school than at a large one. Three missed FRL forms can equal $7,000 in lost annual funding.

Where funding moves

Three levers move funding meaningfully for these campuses, in roughly this order:

  • Enrollment (FPC). The largest lever. Each pupil pulls roughly $8,900 base + COL/locale/size adjustments + 25% weights for any pupil also identified as at-risk/ELL/SPED. A 10-pupil swing at Fairplay is roughly $100K-$150K depending on the demographic mix.
  • At-risk identification. Every additional FRL-eligible student adds $2,225/year in FY27, rising with base PPR. FRL form completion campaigns are typically the highest-yield administrative investment at a small school.
  • SPED and ELL identification. Both behave identically to at-risk at 25%. The new-formula weight stacks on top of federal IDEA funding and state ELL grants — it does not displace them.

Try the per-input growth-rate buttons above each campus to see how each lever propagates from FY27 through FY32 separately. A scenario with enrollment flat but at-risk growing 10%/year looks very different from one with enrollment growing and at-risk flat.

Beyond identification — retention. A funding lens makes identification visible but can mask a separate strategic question: are students from specific demographic groups staying enrolled at the school year-over-year? If at-risk, ELL, or SPED student counts are growing because of new enrollment but mobility within those groups is also high (meaning students are leaving), the funding picture looks fine while service quality for that population may be a concern. Pull mobility data by demographic subgroup as a complement to the identification-rate work that drives funding.

Risks to watch

  • January 2027 true-up. FY27 figures get reset against the certified October 2026 count. The size of the swing depends on how aggressive the enrollment projection was. A campus holding steady or growing modestly from its FY26 enrollment should see a small variance (often under 2-3%). Summit Expansion as a brand-new FY27 launch is taking on the most projection risk — there is no FY26 actual to anchor the count and the per-pupil weights apply to whatever students actually show up, not the planning number.
  • Enrollment underperformance. The single biggest dollar-risk for a small campus is missing the enrollment plan. Falling short by 10 students at a ~50-pupil campus is a 20% headcount miss and translates to roughly $90K-$130K of foregone total program in FY27 at typical demographics. The new formula's per-pupil weights compound this — fewer enrolled students also means fewer triggering weights.
  • Hold-harmless floor termination. The floor protects schools through FY31 (you receive the greater of the phase-in amount or the same-year old-formula × 1.01). FY32 has no floor. At default inputs across the three HRCS campuses the floor does not bind in any year, so this is not a current concern — but a sharp enrollment or demographic decline before FY32 could change that.
Floor status under current inputs:

State fiscal context

This tool projects funding as the legislation is written. It does not model the broader state fiscal environment, which remains constrained: TABOR revenue limits, ongoing property tax debate, and structural pressure on the General Fund all create real risk that what is appropriated and what is ultimately distributed may differ.

Mid-year rescission is a live possibility. If certain bills do not pass during the fall legislative session, the state retains the option to reduce K-12 distributions mid-year — a mechanism with recent precedent (negative budget stabilization factors). The phase-in schedule and per-pupil weights set by HB25-1320 / SB26-023 are statutory, but the dollar value of "base PPR" each year is set by annual appropriation and is the lever most likely to move under a rescission.

Practical implication for planning: the base PPR inflation assumption is in Section 01 (default 2.0%/year). This is set conservatively below the actual FY26→FY27 print of 2.4% because future-year increases are not guaranteed — appropriation depends on annual budget conditions. Adjust the input upward to model the optimistic case (~2.4–2.5%/year if recent practice holds) or downward (1.0–1.5%) to stress-test against TABOR-constrained or rescission scenarios.

Out of scope

Use this tool for funding-trajectory planning under HB25-1320 / SB26-023. Do not use it for cash-flow timing, budget-line-item construction, or districts where local revenue dynamics dominate. Specifically not modeled:

Statutory protections for declining enrollment. Two related mechanisms protect schools whose enrollment is falling: the legacy §22-54-103 declining-enrollment averaging (multi-year averaging that smooths the funded pupil count for old-formula calculations) and the SB26-023 §22-54-103.5 smoothing factor (L027) that begins at 45% new-formula implementation in FY28. CSI computes separate counts under both rules; this tool uses a single FPC input that feeds both formula legs. For stable-enrollment schools (both HRCS campuses) the two CSI counts converge and the tool matches CSI exactly. A school in genuine enrollment decline would see the old-formula leg projected too low here, understating the FY28-FY31 floor. The L027 smoothing-factor rates have not yet been published by CSI; this tool will need updating once they are released.

Federal and state non-formula revenue. Title I, IDEA, ELL grants, MLO override revenue, and other categorical funding sit outside this calculation. New-formula weights stack on top of those revenue streams.

January 2027 true-up. All FY27 figures are estimates until CDE certifies the October 2026 count in January 2027. Variance depends on projection accuracy: a school close to its prior-year enrollment will see small movement, while a school projecting strong growth bears more variance risk. Recalculate after certification.

Pre-enrollment SB26-023. The bill must be signed by the Governor to be effective. All FY27+ figures are estimates until enrollment.

04 · METHODOLOGY & CAVEATS

Calculation methodology

The calculation engine implements CSI's finalized FY27 charter funding methodology and the FY28-FY32 phase-in schedule set by HB25-1320, with CDE's authoritative FY28+ cost-of-living factors from the April 2026 study. At default FY27 inputs, the tool reconciles to CSI's published FY27 estimate for the existing campus ($701,867 Fairplay, within rounding) and to the CSI engine's modeled FY27 figure for the launching campus ($656,321 Summit Expansion). Alma has no CSI baseline because it has no prior-year enrollment and no submission on record — it is included as a planning placeholder you populate with your own projections.

Data classification

Every figure in this tool belongs to one of four categories. Where a figure can be questioned or changed, the category tells you who can change it and what triggers an update.

Statute

Set by enrolled bill text (HB25-1320, SB26-023). Not adjustable; updates only when statute is amended.

ExamplesPhase-in % (30/45/60/75/90/100); base PPR ($8,900.40 FY27); 25% weight on at-risk/ELL/SPED; concentration trigger (district funded count < 7,000 AND district AR > 70% AND school AR > 70%); hold-harmless floor formula.
CSI Method

CSI's finalized administrative implementation of statute. Authoritative for actual distributions; may diverge from a strict reading of statute (flagged where material).

ExamplesAt-risk % denominator (CSI uses headcount; statute references funded-count); old-formula at-risk = 12% × PP7 × FRL when school AR is below the 46.75% state threshold; single FPC input replaces CSI's two separate certified counts for stable-enrollment schools.
Sourced

Pulled directly from primary source files. Updates require new source publication (next CSI estimate release, CDE worksheet revision, October Count true-up).

ExamplesDistrict PP7, AR/ELL/SPED %, COL/locale/size factors per district; FY27 enrollment defaults (school submissions to CSI); FY26 actual total program by campus; published FY27 estimate per campus.
Input

User-adjustable in the tool. Defaults provided where source data exists; cells flagged where school-submitted figures are not yet available.

ExamplesFY27-FY32 enrollment (FPC and headcount); FRL/ELL/SPED counts per year; annual growth rates for each demographic; base PPR inflation assumption.

Summary

The bill phases in over six years (as written). FY27 is only 30% of the gap between old and new formula. FY32 is the first year you'll see the full new-formula amount. The phase-in schedule is statutory, but the legislature retains the option to slow or pause the schedule under fiscal stress — as happened with HB25-1320 reducing the FY25-26 phase-in from 18% to 15%. Treat the schedule as the baseline, not a guarantee.
Each at-risk, ELL, and SPED student is worth ~$2,225 in FY27. That dollar weight rises with base PPR inflation each year through FY32.
FY27 figures will move in January 2027. The certified October 2026 count triggers a true-up. Variance size depends on how aggressive the enrollment projection was.
The hold-harmless floor protects you through FY31. You receive the greater of the phase-in calc or the same-year old-formula × 1.01. FY32 has no floor.
Admin retention is 3% (CSI). Districts may retain up to 5%. The "Net to School" line is what actually arrives.
Year-over-year change on Per-Pupil Revenue isolates formula and composition effects from raw enrollment growth. PPR up + total flat = same number of students, more dollars per student. Total up + PPR flat = more students, same dollars each.

FY26 baseline

FY26 actuals are taken from the CSI records reflected in the canonical engine ($697,492 Fairplay; $463,515 Alma). FY26 was computed under the prior methodology, not the HB25-1320 / SB26-023 framework — it's shown here as a "where we're coming from" reference, not a comparable formula output. Year-over-year changes for FY27 are calculated against FY26 actual; the FY27 jump reflects both the new bill and enrollment growth.

New-formula components

Base PPR × FPC, plus at-risk / ELL / SPED at 25% of base PPR per pupil in each category, plus cost-of-living, locale, and size factors applied to the base. Concentration factor (7% of base × FRL) requires school AR > 70% in a district under 7,000 funded count with district AR > 70%. Neither HRCS campus qualifies; locale and size are zero for both HRCS districts.

Phase-in schedule

FY27-FY31 funding is a blend of the prior (1994) formula and the new formula, weighted 30% / 45% / 60% / 75% / 90% to the new formula. FY32 is 100% new formula.

Hold-harmless floor

FY27 floor = FY26 actual × 1.01. FY28-FY31 floor = same-year prior-formula leg × 1.01 (current-year basis, does not compound). FY32 has no statutory floor. School receives the greater of phase-in or floor.

Growth-rate inputs

Separate annual growth rates for enrollment (FPC and headcount move together), at-risk count, ELL count, and SPED count. Rates compound from FY27 through FY32. Individual cell edits override the growth-rate result for that cell. The default growth rate is zero (flat at FY27 demographics) for each campus; this is the conservative starting assumption. Use the growth-rate fields to test what a 5-10%/year enrollment ramp at Alma or Summit Expansion would do, or what a steady FRL identification campaign at Fairplay yields over the phase-in window.

Year-over-year change basis

YoY $ and % change are calculated on Per-Pupil Revenue, not total program funding. This isolates formula and demographic-composition effects from raw enrollment growth — useful for strategy decisions about enrollment expansion versus serving higher-needs populations. A growing school can see total funding rise while PPR is flat (pure enrollment effect); a school with stable enrollment can see PPR rise if it serves more at-risk, ELL, or SPED students (composition effect). FY27 PPR YoY compares against FY26 actual PPR (FY26 gross ÷ FY26 FPC).