Dear FY25 CSP Grant Applicants & Charter School Authorizers,

Thank you again for your time, effort, and thoughtful proposals submitted for the FY2025 Great Schools Colorado – Charter Schools Program (GSC-CSP) grant competition. We were honored to receive several applications representing a wide range of promising charter school projects across the state.

The application and external peer review process has now concluded, and we want to share a timely update on the next steps and anticipated timeline for award decisions.

As outlined in the Request for Applications (RFA), CLCS committed to awarding up to five subgrants this cycle (3 new, 1 expansion, and 1 replication). However, we now face a good—yet difficult—challenge: determining how to maximize the number of high-quality projects funded within our available budget, given the varying amounts requested (many near the $2,000,000 cap).

To that end, CLCS is submitting a formal Request for Project Revisions to our federal CSP Program Officer to potentially expand the number of awards beyond the original projection. We anticipate a response from the U.S. Department of Education within 2–4 weeks, though this timeline may shift based on the complexity of our request, federal team availability, and the upcoming Independence Day holiday.

While we understand the eagerness to hear results, we believe it's more beneficial to delay our announcement slightly in order to provide a complete and inclusive award update—rather than issuing a partial list based solely on rank order for the five projected slots. Our current target is to notify all applicants of their status by August 1, 2025.

We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we navigate this process and work toward awarding as many high-quality proposals as possible. Please direct any questions or concerns you have in the meantime to [email protected].

Kind regards,

Dawna Taylor

Cc: Tanesha Bell, GSC Grant Director
Bright Homawoo, GSC Grant Manager/Technician
Dave Mohr, GSC Grant Fiscal Manager
Mark Heffner, GSC Fiscal Lead