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D38 Career & Innovation Center Finds a Natural Partner in ACCO

ACCO's arrival in Monument could create a direct pathway from D38 classrooms into advanced manufacturing, welding, engineering and skilled-trades careers. The company's new fabrication facility offers Lewis-Palmer students something a career center cannot manufacture on its own: direct access to a major local employer.

Monument’s newest major employer may also become one of Lewis-Palmer School District 38’s most valuable educational partners.

District 38 hosted representatives from ACCO Engineered Systems, the Town of Monument and the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC at its Career & Innovation Center this week to celebrate ACCO’s expansion into Monument. The company plans to invest $36 million outfitting an existing building as a fabrication facility and expects to create as many as 135 jobs, at a projected average annual wage of $87,037. ACCO designs, fabricates and installs heating, cooling, plumbing, refrigeration, process-piping and building-automation systems.

For D38, the significance is less about the size of the investment than the type of work arriving with it.

A close match for the Career & Innovation Center

The Career & Innovation Center opened at 1200 Synthes Avenue in August 2025 to expand the district’s career and technical education offerings. Its first phase centered on advanced manufacturing, engineering and skilled trades, with healthcare and computer-science programs planned as later additions. Roughly 200 students attended classes at the center during its first school year.

Students can receive hands-on instruction, work toward industry credentials and prepare either to enter the workforce or continue at a college or trade school. Students remain enrolled at Lewis-Palmer or Palmer Ridge rather than transferring. The center also houses D38’s Transition Services program for students ages 18 to 21 who are developing vocational and independent-living skills.

ACCO’s fabrication and mechanical-systems work overlaps closely with several of those programs, including welding, construction, engineering and advanced manufacturing.

That connection was not an afterthought. Before ACCO selected Monument over Peoria, Arizona, the company wrote to the town council that it would be “very interested in sponsoring and partnering with local schools and in particular, the Lewis-Palmer Career and Innovation Center,” describing the appeal as “direct access to talent trained in relevant technical skills.” The letter was reported by the Monument Independent. The district was not the one who raised it.

Superintendent Amber Whetstine said the announcement represented “the kind of partnership that will shape opportunities for our students for years to come,” and that the district hopes to develop internships, job shadowing, industry mentorships and other work-based learning experiences with the company.

Built without a local tax measure

D38 began pursuing the center after more than a year of discussion about expanding career education. The school board approved the purchase of a former light-manufacturing property in May 2024.

The money came together without a ballot question. The larger piece was a one-time opportunity created by Senate Bill 24-017, a 2024 law that changed when the state pays districts rather than how much. Districts had been receiving the state’s share of their funding in twelve roughly equal monthly payments, which left a cash gap early in the year while they waited on property taxes. SB24-017 retimed the state payments against the property tax calendar so the combined monthly total arrives closer to even.

Smoothing that curve freed up cash the district had been holding to bridge the gap. District officials estimated the change gave D38 one-time use of approximately $8.3 million. More than $2 million from developer payments made in lieu of providing school land was also available. Together, that allowed D38 to proceed without asking voters for a bond or a mill levy override.

It is worth being clear about what that means going forward. The one-time money is spent, and a timing change of that kind does not repeat. Operating the center — staff, equipment and consumables for welding and manufacturing programs — is an ongoing general-fund cost in a district that recently cut about 35 positions and drew its reserve from $13.7 million to roughly $6.0 million.

A ready-made way to help

There is already a mechanism for an employer that wants to contribute. The Career & Innovation Center sits inside a designated Colorado Enterprise Zone, and D38 advertises that donations to it carry a 25% state Enterprise Zone tax credit, along with naming rights for parts of the facility.

ACCO is separately receiving up to $585,800 in Enterprise Zone credits as part of its incentive package. Those are different credits for different things. But a company that has already said in writing that it wants to sponsor the center is moving into a zone where doing so is tax-advantaged — and the district is openly looking for corporate sponsors.

What comes next

The Career & Innovation Center was built around the idea that career education works best when employers help shape it. ACCO offers D38 an unusually close test of that model: a large technical employer operating a few miles from classrooms training students in many of the same skills.

The outlines are promising. The next measure will be how many of those internships, apprenticeships and mentoring opportunities move from the announcement stage into the student schedule.

Sources

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