Recently, Garfield Re-2 Superintendent Kirk Banghart published a statement claiming Two Rivers Community School (TRCS) is in violation of the law because it provides daily transportation to students from across the Roaring Fork Valley. As Head of School at TRCS, I believe it is my responsibility to correct the record and protect the community that built this school from the ground up.

The facts are not in dispute. TRCS proudly operates four bus routes each school day, connecting children from south Glenwood Springs to Rifle with a safe, reliable path to a unique option in local public education. What is in dispute is whether Garfield Re-2, or any school district, has the authority to eliminate this essential service. The law is clear that they do not.

From our humble beginnings in an old post office warehouse in 2014, TRCS has been a product of local residents coming together to create something uniquely responsive to community needs. Parents, educators, and school leaders from both the Roaring Fork School District and Garfield Re-2 founded this school because they wanted a public option that offered a different approach to learning. Today, the families who choose TRCS represent the same broad cross-section of the valley, from Parachute to Carbondale, united not by the district line they live within, but by the education they want for their children.

We are especially proud that we offer daily transportation because it is directly tied to who we are: a school committed to serving everyone, including families working long hours, commuting great distances, or facing the very real financial challenges that anyone who wants to live in this valley can relate to. We know that when getting to school becomes a barrier, opportunity disappears. Transportation is not a luxury. It is equity. It is access. It is how we, as a public school, ensure every student, not just those with the means and schedule to provide daily rides, can benefit from our program.

Transportation is just one example of how TRCS has worked deliberately to remove barriers. Nearly every charter school across the state charges student fees annually, TRCS does not. We built our own commercial kitchen, at substantial cost, so that students qualifying for free and reduced lunch could eat with dignity years before Colorado enacted universal school meal legislation. Today, every student at TRCS receives breakfast and lunch at no charge each school day, because full bellies fuel strong learning. When faced with a choice between doing what is easy and doing what is right for children, TRCS has always chosen the latter.

Originally, TRCS operated as a statewide charter school authorized by the Charter School Institute. In 2022, we transitioned to local authorization through the Roaring Fork School District, who continue to serve as critical partners in our ongoing efforts to serve the valley.  But this shift did not change the independent nature of our operations. Under the Colorado Charter Schools Act, the very law that grants the authority to create charter schools, we remain an autonomous public school governed by our own Board of Directors. All of our employees: teachers, paras, office staff, kitchen staff, custodial, school leadership, and of course our bus drivers, work for TRCS, not RFSD.  We make our own hiring decisions, run our own payroll, buy our own insurance, and pay for our own legal counsel because we operate independently as a singular entity. That autonomy is not diminished, limited, or transferred depending on who authorizes our charter.

Colorado lawmakers created charter schools to increase public school options, not to restrict access to them. The suggestion that the state intended for a charter school’s transportation authority to be controlled by any one district ignores the legal foundation of school choice itself. It defies logic to believe that the same law designed to expand opportunity would also prevent charter schools from providing the very services that make that opportunity real.

Despite having a fraction of the resources of surrounding districts, TRCS has become a thriving example of what’s possible when a community commits itself to public education. Garfield Re-2 educates more than 4,000 students with an annual budget nearing $80 million. TRCS serves 400 students with an annual budget of $8 million. There’s a ten-fold difference in the economies of scale when comparing our resources.  Where districts rely on voter-approved bonds for buildings and buses, we pay our own facility debt, $508,000 annually, directly out of our operating budget. Every chair, every school bus, our new play structure, and every minor and major classroom improvement has been funded entirely by our school.  

And still, we have built something remarkable: a public school families believe in, a staff that is deeply committed to student success, and an ever more diverse student body that reflects the fabric of this valley. Limiting our transportation services would harm real children and real families who depend on us daily.  Our students and families who have grown to love this place and who have spent countless hours working to support our mission deserve better than to be targets of a superintendent who sees students as commodities for their financial benefit. The competition we bring to the local educational landscape benefits everyone. 

The Roaring Fork Valley has always been more connected than divided. We work, live, and build community across district boundaries. Our public schools should reflect that spirit and our greater community should stand with TRCS as it faces such an egregious attack against the shared values of our community.  Public schools and local school districts should be working together, collaborating and forming alliances to serve the rural communities we’ve been tasked with serving, not preying on one another for money. 

Two Rivers Community School will continue to keep our doors, and the doors of our buses, open wide. 

I stand with Two Rivers Community School. 

Jamie Nims is a bus driver and the Head of School of Two Rivers Community School.